M DUFFIES EULOGY ON HAYNE 






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A EULOGY 

UPON THE LIFE AND CHAKACTEK OF THE LATE 

HON. ROBEMT Y. MAYJNE : 

DELIVERED ON THE 13th FEBRUARY, 1840, ^- 

AT THE 

CIRCULAR CHURCH, 

BY APPOINTMENT OF THE c:T>/Er.S OF CHAIILESTON. 



1 ' J < I 



By <?JL:©RGE jTI'BUFFIE. 



PUBLISHED AT THE REQUEST OF THE CITV COUNCIL OF CHARLESTON. 



CHARLESTON: 

PRINTED BY W. RILEV, 41 BROAD STRELT. 
1840. 



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PREFACE. 



On the 27th of September last, the melancholy intelligence was 
received in Charleston, of the death of our distinguished and la- 
mented fellow citizen, the Hon. Robert Y. Hayne. He died at 
Ashville, North Carolina, a few days previously, of a fever which 
he had contracted whilst on a journey to that place, whither he had 
gone to attend a Convention of the Louisville, Cincinnati, and 
Charleston Rail Road Company, of which he was the President. 
As soon as the fact of his demise was authentically ascertained, 
the City Council of Charleston ^yas specially convened for the pur- 
pose of paying to his memory an appropriate tribute of respect. 
That Body met accordingly, on the day following, (the 28th,) when 
the following proceedings took place : 

Special Meeting of the City Council, ) 
Saturday, 1 adock, P. M. Sept. 28//;, 1840. ( 

Present — the Mayor, Aldurmen Ripley, Seymour, M'Donald, Pat- 
BICK, Patton, Simons, Lance, Kinloch, Hunter. 

The Mayor stated that he had convened Council for the purpose of 
communicating the melancholy intelligence of the death of the Hon. 
Robert Y. Hayne, and willi a view to some suitable action on the part 
of Council, respecting an event so truly mournful in itself, and so justly 
regarded as a public calamity by all our people. The Mayor then ad- 
dressed Council in relation to the eminent public services, and pure and 
exalted character of the deceased, dwelling particularly on the great and 
irreparable loss wliich this community has sustained, in the sudden and 
unexpected death of so able, so public spirited, so excellent a man — her 
most distinguished and favorite son. 

Alderman Seymour then offered the following resolutions, which having 
been seconded by Alderman Lance, were unanimously adopted : 

1st. Resolved, That the City Council has received with the deepest sor- 
row, the melancholy intelligence of the death of the Hon. Robert Y. 
Hayne. 

2d. Resolved, That justly regardmg this lamentable event as a severe 
pubhc calamity, not only to the city of Charleston, but to tlie State, and 
the Union, and holding, as they do, tiic pubhc services and private charac- 
ter of the deceased, in the most grateful and respectful estimation, they 
desire to honor his memory in some manner that may most suitably ex- 
press their liigh appreciation of his worth, and their unfeigned sorrow for 
bis loss. 



IV PREFACE. 

3d. Resolved, That for this purpose, and for the further purpose of uni- 
ting with the wiiole community, in a public expression of the general and 
profound grief which pervades it, on account ot this sudden and afflictive 
dispensation, the Maj'or be requested to convene the citizens on Wednes- 
day next, at 12 M., at the City Hall, and to submit to them in behalf of 
Council, a preamble and resolutions adapted to the mournful occasion of 
their meeting. 

4th. Resolved, That among the resolutions to be offered to the meeting 
by the Mayor, he be requested to submit to them the propriety of erecting 
a suitable monument in the centre of the City Square, to the memory of 
the deceased. 

The following resolution was then offered by Alderman Simons, which 
having been seconded by Alderman Patton, was also unanimously 
adopted, viz : 

Resolved, That, as a further testimony of respect for the memory of 

the late General Robert Y. If ay.ne, and as a manifestation of their deep 

regret for his loss, the Mayor and Aldermen will wear crape on the left 

arm for the space of thirty days. 

Council then adjourned. 

JOHN R. ROGERS, Clerk of CouncU. 

In compliance with the third of the foregoing Resolutions, the 
citizens were convened by lli<i !\Iayor, at the City Hall, on the 2d 
of October, 1839, when a very nunicrous and respectable assem- 
blage attended, which was organized by the appointment of the 
HoH. Henky Deas, as tiie Chairman, and II. W, Seymoub, as 
the Secretary, of the meeting. The object of the meeting having 
been briefly, but emphatically stated by the Chair, the Mayor then 
addressed the assembly on the mournful subject which had caused 
him to convene them, after which, he submitted a Preamble, exhi- 
biting a sketch of the life and character, and public services of the 
deceased, together with a series of Resolutions, all of which were 
adopted with the most marked demonstrations of public sympathy 
and sorrow. The Kesoluliuns alluded to were to the following 
effect, viz ; 

1st. Rcsohed, That wo, the citizens of Charleston, deeply deplore the 
death of our beloved and distinmiishcd follow citizen, the Hon. Robert 
Y. IIay.ne, to wiiioin we were attached by every feeling ot affection, and 
every principle of gratitude. 

2d. Resolved^ That justly and candidly appreciating his numerous and 
imiKirtant public services: his ardent patrioti.-^m and enlightened zeal : his 
manly, fervid, and prevailing eloquence ; his matured experience, and 
bold, yot prudent wisdom : his high sense of honor, and pure and inflexi- 
ble integrity : his noble liberality and unwearied devotion to every useful 
and patriotic undertaking: we regard his decease as a calamity to the 
city of Charle.^ton, the State of South Carolina, and the Union at large. 



PREFACE. V 

3d. Resolved, That in testimony of our gratitude and admiration for the 
character and services of the deceased, llie chairman of this meeting be 
authorized to appoint a committee of twenty-five citizens, whose office it 
shall be to select a suitable person to dehvcr an Eulogium on him, and 
who shall notify the public of the time of its delivery, and make all ne- 
cessary arrangements in relation to tlie same. 

4th. Resolved, That in further testimony of our admiration and grati- 
tude for the character and services of the deceased, we do cordially con- 
cur in the suggestion of the Honorable the City Council, that a monument 
be erected to his memory in the centre of the City Square, and that the 
City Council be, and they are hereby authorized and requested to erect the 
same in the name of the City of Charleston, and the Neck ; and that 
every citizen of this city, or of this State, who may desire to contribute 
to the same, be requested to transmit his contribution to the City Trea- 
surer. 

5th. Resolved, That this meeting sincerely sympathize with the afflicted 
family and relatives of the deceased, in the severe bereavement they have 
been called to sustain, and that the chairman be requested to transmit a 
copy of these proceedings to his respected relict, with an expression of 
the unfeigned condolence of this whole community. 

Under the third resolution, the following gentlemen were appointed by 
the chairman a committee to select an orator : 

Hon. Jacob Axson, Hon. Thomas Bennett, Hon. Francis D. Quash, 
Ker Boyce, Samuel vVragg, Charles Edmondston, John A. Stuart, M. I. 
Keith, John Huger, R. VV. Seymour, Tristam Tupper, Dr. Edward W. 
North, Charles M. Furman, J. F. Mintzing, John Schnierle, Henry A. 
DeSaussure, William Aiken, Henry W. Peronneau, Richard Yeadon, 
Jun., Alexander M'Donald, John Magrath, J. N. Cardozo, Samuel Burger, 
Dr. Thomas Y. Simons, VV. B. Pringle. 

Ordered, that the chairman of the meeting, and the mover of the reso- 
lutions, be added to the committee of twenty-live, and that the chairman 
of the meeting act as chairman of that committee. 

A few days after their appointment, the Committee of Twenty- 
Five met at the City H-xll, and selected the Hon. Geokge M'Duffib 
to deliver the Eulogium. This appointment having been accepted 
by Mr. M'Duffie, the 23d of November, 1839, was at first deter- 
mined on for the delivery of the Eulogium, but to accommodate the 
orator, who was unable to visit the city at that time, the day was 
subsequently changed to the 13lh of February, 1840, 

On the 8th of October, 1839, (the first meeting of Council af- 
ter the meeting of the citizens,) the following proceedings took 
place : 

City Council, Tuesday, Oct. 8th, 1839. 
The Mayor reported to Council the proceedings of the public meeting 
of citizens on the 2d inst., in relation to the death of the Hon. Robert Y. 



VI PREPACK, 

IlATyK, in connection with wliich, lie ofTercd the following resolutions, for 
the consideration of the Council, viz: 

Whereas, the citizens at their meeting on the 2d inst., in relation to the 
lamented death of the Hon. Robert Y. Hayne, adopted, among others, 
the following resolution, viz : 

ResoIicJ, That in further testimony of our admiration and gratitude for 
the character and services of the deceased, we cordially concur in the sug- 
gestion of the Honorable the City Council, that a monument be erected 
to his memory in the centre of the City Square, and that the City Council 
be, and they are hereby autliorized and requested to erect the same in the 
name of the City of Charleston, and the Neck ; and that every citizen of 
this city, or of this State, who may desire to contribute to the same, be 
requested to transmit his contribution to the City Treasurer. 

Be it therefore Resolved, by the City Council — Ist. That a monument 
shall be erected to the memory of the Hon. Robert Y. Hayne, m the 
centre of the City Square. 

2d. Resolved, That a Special Committee, to consist of three Aldermen, 
and three gentlemen selected fi-om amongst the citizens, be appointed to 
procure plans and estimates, and to superintend the execution of the work; 
and that one hundred dollars be given for the plan that may be approved by 
Council. 

3d. Resolved, That Ward Committees, of four each, be appointed to 
collect contributions for the monument in their respective wards, and that 
they pay over the amounts, respectively collected by them, to the City 
Treasurer. 

4th. Resolved, That the City Treasurer be, and he is hereby required, 
to receive, deposit, and keep a separate account of all monies transmitted 
or paid over to him, on account ^f the monument fund. 

5ih. Resolccd, That the Building Committee do report to Council the 
plans and estimates tiiey may ob^in, in order that Council may determine 
the plan to be adopted, and the aflioimt to be appropriated for the erection 
of the same. 

Gtli. Resolved, That the citizens of the Neck be respectfully innted to 
appoint a committee to collect contributions lor the monument fund, and 
transmit them to the City Treasurer. 
The resolutions were concurred in. 

Under the second resolution the following Joint Committee was ap- 
pointed by the Mayor : 

On the part of Council — Aldermen M'Donald, Seymour, and Simons. 
On the part of the citizens — KorBoyce, Chas. Fraser, and Wm. P. Finley. 
Under the third resolution, (relating to the collection of contributions,) 
the following Ward Comiuitteea were appointed by the Mayor, viz : 
Ward No. 1 — Charles Edmondston, James Chapman, Isaac S. Bailey. 
Ward No. 2— Henry A. DcSaussurc, T. Farr Capers, M. I. Keith, 
Pinckney Johnson. • 

Ward No, 3. — Wm. Kirkwood, Henry S. Tew, B. Lanncau, J. C. 
Burckmycr. 



PREFACE. Vll 

Ward No. 4— Daniel Ilorlbcck, Thomas O. Elliott, Daniel C. Levy, 
E. L. Kerrison. 

It may hero be remarked, that though tlie Joint Committee in 
relation to the erection of a monument, have received several very 
appropriate and tasteful plans, no definite steps have yet been taken 
for the execution of the work, in consequence of the extraordinary 
pecuniary difticulties of the times, which have opposed an almost 
insurmountable obstacle to the collection of the amount of contribu- 
tions necessary to that object. 

About ten days before the time appointed for the delivery of tho 
Eulogium, it having become necessary that all the arrangements 
connected therewith, should be definitely made, the Mayor, (in the 
absence of Mr. Deas from the city,) convened the Committee of 
Twenty-Five, of whose proceedings, upon that occasion, the fol- 
lowing copy is subjoined : 

GiTT Hall, Monday, Feb. 3, 1840. 

At a meeting of the committee of twenty-five, (appointed by the citi- 
aens to select an Orator to deliver an Eidogium upon the character of the 
late Gen. Haynb,) held this day at the City Hall, the Hon. II. L. Pinck- 
KBY, Mayor, was requested to act as chairman, in the absence of the Hon. 
Henry Deas; and William B. Pringle, Esq., was appointed secretary. 

The chairman laid before the meeting a series of resolutions, which 
having been amended by the filling of the blanks, and the appomtmentof 
Sub-committees, were unanimously adopted by*the meeting, as was also 
a resolution oficred by Mr. Boyce. 

The resolutions alluded to are as follow, viz : 

Whereas, the delivery of a Eulogium upon the late General Havne, 
by the Hon. George M'Duffie, is to take place on Thursday, the 13th 
inst., andthe time has arrived when all the arrangemfents comiected there- 
with should be definitely made : 

1. Therefore, be it Resolved, That, in the opinion of this committee, it 
is proper that a civic and military procession be formed on the occasion, 
for the purpose of paying, in that manner, an appropriate tribute to the 
memory of the deceased, and of exhibiting the exalted estimation in 
which his character and services are held, as well in the military as in the 
civic stations which he occupied. 

2. Resolved, That for the purpose of forming a civic procession, the 
Rev. the Clergy of all denominations, the Hon. the Judges and members 
of the Bar, members of the State Legislature, officers of tlie State, the 
Hon. the City Council and City Ofiicers, the President, Directors, and 
Officers of the Charleston, Louisville and Cincinnati, and Charleston and 
Hamburg Rail Road companies, all the Societies of the city and the neck, 
all Foreign officers, officers of the U. S. Army and Na\y, Revolutionary 
officers, the citizens generally of the city and the neck, and all such citi- 
zens of the State as may be withui the city, be, and they are hereby respec- 



via PREFACE. 

fully invited to attend, and unite, for the object above mentioned, at the 
time and place designated in another resolution. 

3. Resolved, That for the purpose of forming a militar}-, in connection 
witn a civic procession, on the occasion above mentioned, this committee do 
respectfully request Brigadier General Edwards to order out all that por- 
tion of the 4th Brigade, which is composed of uniform corps, and to hold it 
in readiness to unite with tlie civic part of the procession at the time and 
place designated in another resolution. 

4. Resolved, That the civic and military procession be organized at the 
East Bay Battery, and be put in motion by the Alarshals of the day, at the 
hour of eleven, A. M. precisely, on Thursday, tlie 13th inst. 

5. Resolved, That Col. James Lynah, .Major A. G. Magrath, Col. 
Thomas D. Condy, Hon. James S. Ruett, William Brisbane, and 
TuoMAs CoKBETT, Jun., bc, and they are hereby appointed Marshals of 
the day, with full power to arrange and regulate the procession, and that 
they be requested, as soon as they shall have prepared the order of ar- 
rangements, to publish the same in the daily papers, for the general infor- 
mation of the citizens, and that the procession may be readily formed with- 
out confusion or delay. 

6. Resolved, That in the opinion of this committee, it is desirable that 
the use of the Circular Church be obtained for tlie delivery of the Eulo- 
gium, said church being not only centrally situated, but capable of afford- 
ing much larger accommodations than any other to the citizens, and that 
Messrs. Pinckney, Pero.nneau, and Pringle, bc appointed a Sub-com- 
mittee to apply for the use of the said churcli upon this occasion. 

7. Resolved, That in too event of the said Sub-committee obtaining the 
use of the Circular Church for the deUvery of the Eulogium, the said 
Sub-committee be instructed ta request tlie Pastor of the said church to 
perform divine service on the occasion, accompanied by appropriate sacred 
music, and that said committee do niaiie all necessar)' arrangements as 
regards the church, for the delivery of the EiUogium by Gen. M'Duffie. 

8. Resolved, That Messrs. Boyce, Simons, and Edmondston, be ap- 
pointed a Sub-committee to wait iqwn Gen. M'Duffie, on his arrival in 
the city, and to acquaint him with tlie arrangements made by this com- 
mittee. 

9. Resolved, That the Sub-committee on the church bc requested to set 
apart the galleries for the exclusive accommodation of the ladies, and that 
this arrangement be included in the publication by the .Marshals of the 
day. 

10. Resolved, That the Ma^'or bo requested to detail a suitable portion 
of the City Guard, on tlic day of tiie procession, to preserve order and de- 
corum, and to perform any duties that maybe assigned them for that pur- 
pose by the Murslials ot tiie d;iy, 

11 . Resolved, That in the opinion of tliis committee, measures shoidd soon 
be taken for the erection of a monument to Gen. IIayne, and that, there- 
fore, they do respectfully request the Ward Committees, appointed by the 
Mayor, to collect contributions, to proceed to collect them in their respec- 



PREFACE. iX 

tive Wards, on the days immediately succeeding the delivery of the Eulo- 
gium. 

12. Resolved, That the citizens of the city and the neck, be respectfully 
requested to set apart Thursday, tlie IBlh inst., as a solemn and sacred day, 
on which all classes of our people may unite in a tribute of respect to the 
memory of South Carolina's distinguisJied and lamented son, Robert Y. 
Hayne, and that, on that day, the Banks and all other corporations be re- 
quested to suspend their business, and that all places of business or amuse- 
ment be closed on that solemn and melancholy occasion. 

Ordered, That the foregoing resolutions be published in all the daily 
papers of the city. 

H. L. PINCKNEY, Chairmaru 

William B. Prinole, Secretary. 

A few days after the foregoing proceedings by the Committee of 
Twenty-Five, the INIarshals of the day, having made all necessary 
arrangements, published, for general iuformation, the following 

ORDER OF PROCESSION. 
The Marshals appointed by the committee of citizens, authorized to 
make arrangements for the Eulogium on the late Hon. Robert Y. Hayne, 
on Thursday, the 13th inst., respectfully inform the citizens that the fol- 
lo\ving will be the order of the civic and military procession : 

A Marshal. 

Escort of Cavalry. 

Music. 

Military Escort. 

A Marshal. 

Fire Companies of the City and Neck. 

Officers of the Militia. 

Brigadier General and Staff. 

Citizens generally. 

SOCIETIES IN THE FOLLOWING ORDER: 

A Marshal. St. Andrew's :;ociety. A Marshal. 

South Carolina Society. 

St. George's Society. 

Charleston Library Society. 

Medical Society. 

Fellowship Society. 

German Friendly Society. 

Mechanic's Society. 

Hebrew Benevolent Society. 

Hebrew Orphan Society. 

Hibernian Society 

Charleston ]Marine Society. 

New England Society. 

St. Patrick's Benevolent Society. 

Typographical Society. 

French Benevolent Society. 

South Carolina Mechanic's Asssoiation. 

2 



X PREFACE. 

Methodist Benevolent Societies. 

Literary and Philosophical Society. 

Music. 

A Marshal. 

Foreign Consuls. 

A Marshal. Revolutionarj- Officers. A Marshal. 

Officers of the Army and Na%y of the United States. 

The Members of the Bar. 

Judges of the United States, State,*ind City Courts. 

The lieverend the Clergy of all denominations. 

The Officers of the Rail Uoad Companies. 

The President and Directors of the L. C. and C, and S. C. C. and R. R. 

Companies. 

Committee of Arrangements. 

Members of the 6tate Legislature. 

Governor of the State, \vi;h the President of the Senate and Speaker of 

the House. 

The Kelatives of the late R. Y. Hatse. 

The Hon. Geo. M'Duffie, with the Mayor of the City, and the Hon. Henry 

Deas, Chairman of the Committee. 

City Council, with tlie Officers of the City. 

A JIarshal. 

The following regulations will be observed : — 

1. The military escort will be moved at 10 o'clock, A. M., from the 
brigade parade ground, down Meeting-street, and take post on the South 
Bay Battery — right resting on the East Bay Battery, and faced to the 
North. 

2. The civic Societies are requested to report themselves to the Mar- 
shals before half past ten o'clock, A. M., and will be arranged in the order 
in which they are named, on the South Bay Battery, between King and 
Meetiiirj-streets — right, resting on Meeting-street, faced to the North. 

3. Tlie Firo Companies will be arranged according to the dates of their 
charters, in Meeting-street. Right, resting on the South Bay Battery. 

4. The other parts of the procession, and -all who will compose the 
same, are requested to assemble on the South Bay Battery, on the North 
pavement, between King and Meeting-streets. 

5. The procession, when formed, will move along the East Bay Battery, 
then counter-march, and move up to Meeting-street, thence up Meeting- 
street to the Circular Church. 

6. As soon as the procession arrives at the church it will be Halted, and 
opened to the right and left, facing inwa rds, and advance from the rear. 

7. The ceremonies in the church will consist of a Prayer by the Rev, 
Dr. Po.sT, Pastor of the cliurch ;'an Anthem by the choir ; the Eulogy by 
Gen. M'UuFPiE, and conclude with appropriate music. 

8. Tiie galleries are reserved e.vcltisivcly for the accommodation of the 
ladies, and no person, e.\ccpt ladies, will be admitted to the church before 
the procession enters. 

0, The following gcuUcmcii have been appointed Assistaiit Marshals, 



Marshals. 



PREFACE. XI 

by the Mayor and the Committee of Citizens : Major T. L. Webb, Dr. A, 
G. Howard, J. M. Walker, R. N. Gourdin, and W. H. Inglesby, 

Esquires. 

JAMES LYNAH, 
A. G. MA(;RATH, 
T. D. CONDY, 
J. S. RHETT, 
W. S. BRISBANE, 
J. CORBETT, Jun., j 

Simultaneously with the above publication by the Marshals, the 
Mayor also issued the following Proclamation, which was very ge- 
nerally observed by (he citizens^ on the day on which the Eulogium 
was delivered : 

Mayor's Office, Feb. 6, 1840. 

Whereas the Committee of Citizens who were appointed by a public 
meeting, to select an Orator to deliver an Eidogium upon the character 
of the late General Hayne, have expressed a desire, that on the day on 
which the Eulogium is to be pronounced by Gen. M'Dcffie, all places of 
business or amusement in the city should be closed ; Now, therefore, in 
compliance with the desire of said comniittee, and in accordance with the 
public feehng generally, I do hereby set apart Thursday, the 13th instant, 
as a day dedicated to the ceremonies which have been directed to be per- 
formed in honor of the memory of our distinguished and lamented fellow 
citizen, Robert Y. Hayne ; and f do hereby recommend and solicit, that 
on that day all the Banks, and other places of business, and all places of 
amusement, may be closed, in order that all our citizens may unite in a tri- 
bute of respect to the memory of the deceased, and participate in the 
proceedings of the solemn and melancholy occasion, for which that day is 
tlijis set apart. 

Given under my hand and the seal of the city, this 6th day of February, A. 

D. 1840, and in the 64th year of American Independence. 

H. L. PINCKNEY, Mayor. 
By the Mayor. 

John R. Rogers, Clerk of Council. 

General iM'Uuffie arrived in Chirleston on Tuesday, the 11th 
of February, and took lodgings at the Charleston Hotel, where he 
was wailed upon by the Hon. Henkv Deas, Chairman of the Com- 
mittee of Twenty. Five, and a (.\jniniittee of Council, appointed for 
that purpose, consisting of the Mayor, and Aldermen Lance and 
Seymour. In reference to Gen. M'Duffie, and the proper ob- 
servance of the day appointed for the delivery of the Eulogium, 
the following Resolutions were adopted by the Council : 

City Council, Feb. 10, 1840. 
Present — the Mayor, Aldermen Scy.mour, Patton, Hdnter, M'Do- 

ITALD, ScHNIERLE, SiMONS, RipLEY. 

The Mayor stated that he had convened Council, to lay before them an 



in PREFACE. 

invitation from the committee of citizens, appointed by a public meeting, 
to select an Orator to deliver an Eulogum upon the late Gen. Hayne, that 
the Council and city officers should attend the delivery of the Eulogium 
by Gen. iJ'DuFFiE, on Thursday next. 

The Mayor then submitted tlie following resolutions, which were unani- 
mously adopted : 

Resolved, That Council will walk in procession on Thursday next, and 
attend the delivery of an Eulogium upon the character of the late Gen. 
Hayne, by the Hon. George M'Dvffie. 

Resolved, That all the city officers be requested to unite in the proces- 
sion, and attend the exercises at the Circular Church; and that on that 
day, the city offices be closed, and city work suspended, from the hour of 
ten to three o'clock. 

Resolved, That the collecting commirtees be requested to proceed, on 
the day after the delivery of the Eulogium, to the collection of contribu- 
tions in their respective wards, for the erection of a monument to the me- 
mory of Gen. Hayne. 

Resolved, That a committee, consisting of Aldermen Sey-mour and 
Lance, be appointed to wait upon Gen. M'Duffie, on the part of the City 
Council. 

To this committee the Mayor was added. 

CouncU then adjourned. 

JOHN R. ROGERS, Clerk of Council. 

The day having at length arrived for the delivery of the Eulo- 
gium, uie citizens began to assemble at an early hour, and, at the 
time appointed, a civil uua militaiy procession was formed, and the 
other ceremonies took place, of which the following account is ex- 

traded from the Charleston Courier : 

c 

"The civil and military procession was an impo^^ing funeral pageant ; our 
community uniting, without distiiiction of part)-, in the grntefiil office of ming- 
ling the cypre?.-! and the laurel on the tomb of the lamented Hay.ne. It was 
formed at half past 10 o'clock, \. V. at the J-outJi Ray Battery, by Col. T. D. 
CoNDY, Maj. T. L. Webb, tho Hon. J. S Khett, Dr. A. C. Howard, Wm. ^. 

BuiSBANE, \Vm.' H. IngI.ESBY. 'I'llOS. CORBETT, Jun., and JaMES .M. ^VAI.KER. 

Esquires, acting as Marshals of the c'ay. It consisted of the Hon. George 
M'DurriE, the Orator of the occasion, supjiorled, on the right and leH, respec- 
tively, by the lh)n II. L. I'i.vcKsEV, -Mayor of the city, and the Hon. Hexry 
Deas ; the City Council, and OlHeers of the city ; the Relatives of the deceased ; 
the .Members of the State Legislature ; the Committee of .Arrangement.* ; the 
Presidents, Directors, and Othcors of the Louisville, Cincinnati, and Charleston 
Kail Uoad Company, and the South Carolina (^aual and liail ICoad Company; 
the Clergy ; the Judge*, and '^Icmbcrs of the Bar; IMliccrs of the Revolution 
and of die .Army and Navy of the United States; Foreign Consuls ; the various 
Charit.ilil'! and other civil Societies of the city, with their banners in crape, in 
ihe order of their chart ;rs; the citizens generally; the Brigadier General and 
Staff, and Olficers of the Militia: the Fire Masters and Fiie Companies of tJie 
City and Nock , the Military Escort, formed by all the volunteer uniform corps 



PREFACE. Xlll 

of the city, under the command of Colonel J. E. B. Fiklky, and the Cavalry— 
the Marshals being posted at the head and rear, and on the flanks of the columns, 
and at proper intervals in the body of the procession. The procession thus formed, 
moved, in reversed order, to the solemn strains of appropriate music, along East 
Bay-street to Broad, up Broad-street to Meeting, and up flleetingto the Circular 
Church in Meeting-street, the doors, windows, and balconies of the public build- 
ings and private houses, in the line of the procession, being thronged with the 
fair and sympathizing daughters of out City and State, uniting with the sterner 
sex in the common demonstration of grief and honor for the beloved and distin- 
guished dead. On arriving at the church, the procession opened to the right and 
left, and moved inwards from the rear, (which then rested, snch was the great 
length of the column, near the corner of Broad and Church-street,) and thus 
entered the Church. During tiie pjocession, minute guns were fired from the 
South Bay Battery, the Hanks and stores were closed, and the colors of the ship- 
ping in the harbor were displayed at half mast. 

" The spacious area, aisles, as well as pews, of the Circular Church was 
crowded with the immense auditory, and tiie galleries were thronged with ladies, 
who came to join in the tribute of sorrow and respect awarded by their hus- 
bands, fathers, brothers, and sons, to the memory of the deceased. 

" The ceremonies in the church commenced with an exceedingly impressive 
and highly appropriate prayer, by the Rev. Dr. R. Post, Pastor of the church. 
The following Anthem, beautifully adapted to the occasion, was next sung by a 
tuneful choir, to the rich accompaniment of the organ : 

"Thou art gone to the grave— but we will not deplore thee, 
Though sorrows and darkness encompass the tomb, 
The Saviour has passed through its portals before thee ; 
And the lamp of his love is thy guide through the gloom. 
Thou art gone to the grave — we no longer behold thee, 
Nor tread the rough paths of the world by thy side ; 
But the wide arms of Alercy arc spread to enfold thee, 
And sinners may hope, since the Saviour bath died. 

" Thou art gone to the grave — and its mansion forsaking, 
Perchance thy weak Spirit in doubt lingered long; 
But the sunshine of Heaven beam'd bright on thy waking, 
And the sound thou didst hear, was the Seraphim's song. 
Though art gone to the grave — but we will not deplore thee, 
Since God was thy ransom, thy guardian, thy guide. 
" He gave thee, he took thee, and he will restore thee." 
" And death hath no sling since the Saviour hath died." 

" The Orator then rose and pronounced a noble and eloquent Eulogy on the 
character, virtues, and services of the illustrious dooeaseJ. embracing his biog- 
raphy, even from his birth and boyish days, and through his brilliant and unble- 
mished career of manhood, to its sudden and lamented close, in the faithful and 
zealous discharge of responsible public duties, and in the highest and palmiest 
state of his fame and usefulness, in an uiuiniely and stranger grave The inte- 
rest of the discourse was greatly enhanced, too, by occasional anecdotes illustra- 
tive of the energy, and industry, the fidelity to private duty, and patriotic devo- 
tion to the public good, which marked the character and illuminated the life of 
one of the purest patriots and most useful citizens our City and State have ever 
been called on, in Uf« to honor, and in death to mourn. 



XIV PREFACE. 

" Afier the delivery of the Eulogy the following Anthem conclnded the cere- 
monies of the occasion : 

" This life's a dream, an empty show ; 

But the bright world lo which I go, 
Hath joys substatitial and sincere. 

When shall I wake and tind me there 7 

"O! glorious hour ! O blest abode! 

I shall be near, and like my God ; 
And flesh and sin no more control 

The sacred pleasures of my souU 

" My flesh shall slumber in the ground 

Till the last trumpet's joyfui sound ; 
Then burst the chains with sweet surprise, 

And in my Saviour's image rise." 

On the same day on which the Eulogium was dehvereil, and 

almost immediately after its dehvery, the fuUowing proceedings were 

adopted by the City Council : 

THcnsD.4.Y, Feb. 13th, 1840. 

Present— The Mayor, Aldermen Lance, Seymour, Kinloch, Ripley, 
Simons, Patrick, Hunter, Schnierle, Cogdell, M'Donald, Patton. 

Tlie Mayor informed Council, that he had convened the members for 
the purpose ot submitting to them the propriety of requesthig the Hon. 
George M'Duffie to furnish a copy of his Eulog}', delivered this day, 
for publication. 

Whereupon, on motion of Alderman Lance, seconded by Alderman 
Seymour, it was unanimously 

Resolved, That the committee appointed to wait on the Hon. George 
M'Duffie, on liis arrival in the city, be directed to request the man-jscript 
of his Eulogy, pronounced this day, for publication, and that the same be 
printed fur the use of the citizens, under the direction of the committee. 

Council then adjourned. 

JOHN R. ROGERS, Clerk of Council. 

In compliance with the foregoing Resolution, the committee, ap- 
pointed lo solicit the Eulogy for publication, addressed to General 
iM'DuFFiE the following note: 

Council Chamber, Feb. 15th, 1840. 

Dear Sir, — 

We have the honor to infonn you, that at a meeting of the City Coun- 
cil on the 13th inst., the following Resolution was unanimously adopted, 
viz : 

" Resolved, That the committee appointed to wait on the Hon. Geoboe 
" M'Duffie, on his arrival in the city, be directed to request the manuscript 
" of his Eulogy, pronounced this day, for publication, and tliat the same be 
«« printed for the use of the citizens, under the direction ot the said com- 
•' mittcc." 

In compliance with this Resolution, we respectfully apply for the manu- 



PREFACE. * XV 

script of the Eulogy, and trusting that you will gratify the Council and 
the community by permitting its publication, we remain, dear Sir, 
Your obedient Servants, 

H. L. PINCKNEY, Mayor, ") Special Committee 
R. W. SEYiMOlJR, \of the City Coun- 

F. LANCE, ^cil of Charleston. 

Hon. George M'Duffie. 

To which the General made the following reply : 

Charleston Hotel, 17th Feb. 1840. 
Gentlemen — 

I have just received your note, dated the 15th instant, requesting for 
publication the manuscript of my Eulogy on the life and character of 
General Haynb, Whilst I regret, that from the circumstances under 
which it was both prepared and delivered, it came far short of my own 
estimate of what was required by the occasion, I, nevertheless, feel that 
I have no option but to comply with your request. The manuscript is, 
therefore, placed at your disposal. 

I am, gentlemen, 

Your obedient Servant, 

GEORGE M'DUFFIE. 

Unavoidable circumstances have necessarily delayed the publi- 
cation of the Eulogy : but well knowing the earnest and gene- 
ral desire of the citizens to peruse it, every effort was made 
by the committee to gratify this desire as speedily as possible. At 
the same time, it was thought proper to prefix to the Eulogy the 
foregoing account of the proceedings of the City Council, and of 
the citizens, in relation to the death of General Hayne, for the pur- 
pose of preserving, in connection with the Eulogy, an authentic 
history of all that was done by the community of Charleston to 
honor the memory of a man, whom, whilst living, they regarded 
as their brightest ornament, and whose final departure from amongst 
them they will never cease to deplore. 



EULOGY, «&c 



Why is it, my friends, that we have recently seen 
our fellow citizens in various parts of the State, re- 
gardless of all party distinctions, assembling together 
in sorrowful communion, and putting on the badges 
of public mourning? What great and common be- 
reavement has thus united in common sorrows and 
common sympathies those who were, but the other 
day, estranged from each other by all the angry ex- 
citements of political contention ? And why are we 
here assembled, with hearts full of sadness, amidst 
all these expressive signs of private and public afflic- 
tion ? Alas ! the cause of all this is but too deeply 
and painfully impressed upo^i every heart in this as- 
sembly. For while conjugal atfection, and filial piety, 
and generous friendship, mingle their tears on the 
tomb of the best of husbands, the most exemplary 
of parents, and the most faithful of friends, Soutli 
Carolina is summoned to deplore the loss of a states- 
man, who guided and illustrated her councils by his 
wisdom ; ot an orator, who vindicated her sacred and 
violated rights by his elo(]ucnce ; and of a patriot, 
who, in the midst of trials, and temptations, and dif- 
ficulties, and dangers — bore aloft her untarnished es- 
cutcheon amidst the raging elements of the political 
tempest, and with a fidelity and devotion that never 

3 



18 



hesitated, a heart that never quailed, and a heroic 
resolution that never faltered, 

" Stood by his countrj-'s glory fast, 
And nailed her colors to the mast." 

Such, while hving, were the high and undisputed titles 
of Robert Y. Hayne, to the confidence and grati- 
tude of his native State, and to the respect and ad- 
miration of the whole Union. But now the light of 
that wisdom is extinguished forever in our councils ; 
the lofty strains of that eloquence are hushed in ever- 
lastnig silence, and his patriot spirit has gone to min- 
gle with the kindred spirits of our revolutionary fath- 
ers in those mansions of rest, where the stormy tem- 
pests of his earthly pilgrimage will be heard no more. 
Cut off in the full vigor of his faculties, and in the full 
career of his usefulness, by a destiny as untimely for 
his country, as it is afflicting to his family and his 
friends, it only remains for us to render the last so- 
lemn honors, and the last sad tribute of friendship, 
affection and gratitude, to the memory of our distin- 
guished and lamented fellow citizen. To me has 
been assigned the mournful but gratifying part of 
presenting a faithful delineation of his life and char- 
acter, which shall testify to posterity our exalted esti- 
mate of his worth, and which may serve to animate 
the patriotic struggles of future generations in defence 
of their riehts and liberties, bv the illustrious example 
it will hold up for their admiration. And if the inti- 
mate and confidential relations which have subsisted 
between us, without a momentary breach, for nearly 
twenty years, during which we were variously asso- 
ciated in the public service, may be supposed to 
qualify me in any degree for the task, I may hope that 
I shall not bo entirely unsuccessful in performing this 



19 

last melancholy office of affection and duty, to the 
shade of my lost and lamented friend. 

Follow me, then, my friends, while I take a brief 
review of his early life, and of his rapid and brilliant 
career at the bar, in the Legislature of the State, in 
the Senate of the United States, and as the Chief 
Magistrate of South Carolina, during a most perilous 
and eventful period in her history. 

He was born, then, at his paternal mansion, in the 
parish of St. Paul's, on the 10th day of November, 
in the year 1791, and the greater portion of his ju- 
venile days Vv^ere spent amidst the charms of rural 
scenery, to which his mind was always peculiarly sus- 
ceptible. Here he was habituated to those manly 
sports and invigorating exercises, to which he attach- 
ed the utmost importance in training up his sons, be- 
lieving that he was himself in no small degree in- 
debted to them, for some of those striking traits of 
character by which he was distinguished in after life. 
There seems to be a general concurrence of opinion 
among all his early associates at school, that he did 
not exhibit, when sixteen years of age, any marked 
indications of that intellectual superiority over his 
fellows, which could have warriintcd the anticipation 
of the high distinction he deservedly attained so soon 
afterwards. But there is an equally general concur- 
rence of opinion among all who were familiarly ac- 
quainted with him at that early age, that he even then 
exhibited those high moral traits of character, which, 
more than any natural endowments of mere intellect, 
lead to the highest attainments of human greatness. 
It would indeed seem from some of his private letters 
written in his seventeeth year, that stimulated by a 
high moral purpose, he had set up in his own mind a 
standard of intellectual attainment and moral excel- 



20 

lencc, to wliich lie resolved to reacli, and which be- 
came in some sort a iruidino: star to direct and inviff- 
orate his footsteps in the toilsome path of distinction. 
Whether this standard was drawn from some living 
model of high talents and exalted worth, from some 
historical example, or from some ideal combination 
formed from both these sources, it forcibly suggests 
to us a reflection full of encouragement and hope to 
such of the rising generation, as despising ignoble 
ease and inglorious obscurity, generously aspire to 
true greatness. I believe that no youth of ordinary 
intellectual endowments, who thus fixed in early life 
the standard of his own attainments, and exerted 
himself with becoming resolution and perseverance 
to reach it, ever failed to attain to a very high dis- 
tinction. I as confidently believe on the other hand, 
that no one ever became eminently distinguished in 
any of the great and useful departments of human 
afiairs, who had not before him in the incipient sta- 
ges of his moral and intellectual developement, some 
such standard of excellence to direct his as})irations, 
and stimulate his exertions. It is a wise dispensa- 
tion of Providence, that in all those useful arts and 
sciences which contribute to tiie substantial happi- 
ness of the human race, by improving their moral 
and political condition, the will and the moral attri- 
butes of men, incomparably more than any intellec- 
tual endowments, fix and assign the rank they are to 
hold among the distinguished benefactors and orna- 
ments of their kind. 

How many thousands of intellects, naturally e([ual 
to that of Washingtox, have sunk into inglorious ob- 
livion, for the want of this high moral power to sti- 
mulate and direct them ? It may be almost said, that 
within certain limits, wide enough to gratify the 



21 

highest aspirations of virtuous ambition, men arc 
the autliors of tiieir own destinies, and tliat their own 
will is the measure of their attainments. This brief 
speculation will scarcely be considered a digression, 
when we reflect that it is so strikingly illustrated by 
the hfe and character of our lamented fellow citizen. 

After finishing his classical studies, he applied 
himself for some time to a course of reading, prin- 
cipally moral and historical, preparatory to the study 
of his profession. ' It was in this interval that he in- 
formed one of his then recent school-fellows, that he 
had formed and laid down for the government of his 
conduct, certain rules, drawn principally from ethical 
writers, which he considered it his duty to observe 
through life. In the same conversation, the different 
systems of moral philosophy having been brought 
into discussion, he expressed his very decided opi- 
nion, that any system of morals not founded upon 
Christianity, must be radically defective both in its 
requisitions and its sanctions. Indeed there is abun- 
dant evidence drawn from his conversations and wri- 
tings, that from a very early period of his life, a sense 
of the obligations of religion was superadded to a 
deep sense of the moral obligation of all his various 
duties. 

With his mind thus prepared and impressed, he 
commenced the study of the law in the office of our 
distinguished fellow-citizen, Judge Cheves, the excel- 
lence of whose moral character, and the high pow- 
ers of whose intellect, constantly exhibited before 
his pupil, cannot but have contributed in no small de- 
gree to develope the high qualities he soon after- 
wards displayed. He passed his examination, for 
admission to practice law, before he was twenty-one 
years of age ; and Judge Cheves, having been with- 



22 

drawn from the bar by his duties in Congress, trans- 
ferred to him his immense business, witli this memo- 
rable advice, given in reply to an expression of diffi- 
dence, and of a sense of his responsibility : " My 
young friend, never distrust yourself." Thus encou- 
raged, and sustained no doubt by the consciousness 
of his own powers, he assumed the responsible 
charge, and destitute of experience as he was, com- 
menced at once a career of successful practice, and 
very soon ranked with the first members of the 
Charleston bar, distinguished as it tlicn was by the 
high talents that adorned it. His forensic elocjuence 
possessed one striking peculiarity, which will no 
doubt be recollected by every one who had the plea- 
sure of hearing him. There was a perspicuity and 
lucid analysis in the statement of his case, so skilful- 
ly exhibiting the facts, that he had generally produ- 
ced conviction, or a disposition to be convinced, be- 
fore lie had even commenced his argument. This, 
with his high character for integrity and candor as 
a practitioner, gave him a great and merited intiu- 
cnce over the minds of juries, and rendered him one 
of the most successful members of his profession. 
In a city where high talents, directed to virtuous ends, 
are never permitted to remain long without their ap- 
propriate reward, he was soon summoned, by the ge- 
nera! voice of his fellow-citizens, to represent them 
in the Leijislature of the State. He entered this body 
when he was only twenty-three years of age, and ve- 
ry soon disclosed those peculiar powers of clear per- 
ception and solid argument, combined with that pro- 
priety of language, distinctness of enunciation, and 
general felicity and persuasiveness of manner, which 
rendered him so ellectivc as a parliamentary speaker, 
and caused him very soon to be classed among its 



23 

most distinguished members. He was C(nially re- 
markable for those less dazzhiifr, but more useful tal- 
cuts which (lualificd him for the practical busiuess of 
legislation — exhibiting <i combination which I have 
seldom met with in an equal degree in the course of 
my legislative experience, and without which the most 
commanding powers of eloquence serve rather to il- 
lustrate the orator, than to benefit his country. He 
was emphatically a business man, and as the head of 
a committee, he had few equals in the laborious in- 
dustry and excellent system, which enabled him to 
digest and prepare measures for the House with promp- 
titude and accuracy, or in the judicious selection of 
topics and clearness of exposition which enabled him 
to carry them through it. These high qualifications 
gave him a commanding influence in the House, which 
so young a man had seldom before exercised. 

He had served but two terms in the Legislature, 
when, as I happen to know, most unexpectedly to 
himself, he was elected presiding officer of that body. 
In connexion with his assuming the responsible du- 
ties of this appointment, I cannot resist the tempta- 
tion to relate an anecdote strikingly illustrative of the 
resolution and perseverance which never deserted, 
but always sustained him. 

It happened that he had never looked into a book 
of parliamentary rules, and he felt that he knew al- 
most nothing on the subject. According to the usual 
practice of legislative bodies, the house adjourned 
over without doing any business the first day,, except 
to complete its organization. He borrowed from a 
friend a copy of Jefierson's Manual, which he then 
opened for the first time, retired to his room, resolved 
to master its contents before he slept, and did not 
close his eyes that night. Thus much I learn from a 



24 

worthy friend, to wliom he comniuiiicatcd it in an un- 
reserved conversation many years after tlie event, 
while urging him to assume a responsible trust, and 
to illustrate this remarkable opinion by which he en- 
forced his advice : — " I have always found that good 
sense, and a firm purpose, with competent general edu- 
cation, qualify a man for any thing.*' What follows, 
I'state from my own personal knowledge. He took 
the chair next day, as thoroughly qualified for the dis- 
charge of its duties, as any presiding officer I have 
ever known. Indeed I remember to have been struck 
at the time, with the unhesitating promptitude and 
accuracy with which he despatched the business be- 
fore the House ; and during the whole time he remain- 
ed in the chair, I do not remember a single instance 
in which his decision was reversed, or even an appeal 
taken from it. His manner of presiding, combining 
suavity, dignity, firmness and self-possession, com- 
manded the universal respect of the House, and gave 
him a weight of authority, and power of preserving 
order, which I have rarely observed in any other pre- 
siding officer. 

Previous to the expiration of the term for which 
he was chosen speaker, he was elected by the T^egis- 
lature. Attorney General of the State, and contimied 
m this office, until he was elected in 1823, to repre- 
sent the State in the Senate of the United States. 
He was elevated to this high station at a very inter- 
esting ])eriod in the history of our federal relations, 
when it was deemed highly imi)ortant to place the 
very first talents of the State in the federal councils, 
to maintain and vindicate those great and peculiar 
interests of the Southern States, which are insepara- 
bly connected with an unshackled commerce with 
foreign nations, against that unjust and fatal system 



25 

of legislative warfare which was then beginning to 
be distinctly developed. Yet he was the youngest 
man that had ever represented South Carolina in the 
Senate of the United States, being barely qualified, 
in point of age, to take his seat in that body. His 
time, having been almost exclusively devoted to the 
labors of his profession from the moment he entered 
upon the stage of active life, he felt that he was not 
sufficiently prepared for those great questions, which 
would come before the Senate ; and with that high 
sense of duty, and resolute purpose to perform it, 
which were his leading characteristics as a pubhc 
man, he devoted one whole summer immediately af- 
ter his election, to the examination of the various 
manufacturing establishments at the North, and to 
the acquisition of that practical knowledge, which 
he never failed to exhibit in all the discussions con- 
nected with that subject. 

On the new and more extended theatre on which 
he was now acting, he exhibited all those high quali- 
ties as a legislator, by which he had been distinguish- 
ed while confined to a more limited sphere of action. 
To say that he very soon rose to a distinguished rank 
in one of the most august assemblies in the world, 
where the representatives of twenty-four sovereign 
States were sitting in council to discuss and decide 
the gravest questions of foreign and domestic policy, 
is no common praise for so young a man, just trans- 
ferred from the judicial foruni to the senatorial hall. 
His eminent talents for business, his indefatigable in- 
dustry, and his peculiar powers of prompt and lucid 
explanation, could not but indicate him to the presi- 
ding officer of the Senate, as the chairman of one of 
its most important committees. During the greater 
part of his course of service in that body, ho was 

4 



26 

Chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs, ajid 
performed the various and responsible duties of the 
station with such uniform industry, zeal and ability, 
as to secure the universal confidence of the Senate, 
and the general esteem and admiration of the offi- 
cers of the Navy. I believe no chairman that ever 
presided over a committee in Congress, discharged 
his duties with more habitual promptitude, presented 
measures to the house in a more perfect state of pre- 
paration, or came more fully prepared to support and 
defend them. 

One of the maxims of that system in business by 
which he accomplished so much with so little embar- 
rassment — a maxim as important in council as in the 
field — was " never to postpone till to-morrow." No 
confused piles of neglected documents — no such an- 
noying monuments of procrastinating indolence — 
were found upon his table. He was always prepared- 
The encomium passed upon him by our distinguished 
fellow citizen, who then presided over the Senate, 
would, I doubt not, be ratified by the general con- 
currence of that body: — "I have often said, while I 
presided in the Senate, that he was the best Chair- 
man of a Committee I ever saw in any deliberative 
body." 

So complete was his mastery of our whole system 
of Naval defences, and so signal his display of prac- 
tical administrative talents, that it became a very 
general wish among the officers of the Navy, and of 
others who felt a strong interest in its welfare, that he 
should be placed at the licad of the Naval Depart- 
ment. 

1 now propose to speak of his more public exhibi- 
tions of talent in the Senate, as a parliamentary speak- 
er. Making it a matter of conscientious duty to 



27 

investigate tlioroughly every question of importance 
upon which he might be called upon to vote, he sel- 
dom failed to bear a conspicuous part in the discus- 
sion of such questions ; and one cannot but be struck, 
in reviewing the congressional debates, with the mi- 
nuteness of his information on every subject he dis- 
cusses, and the uniform ability with which he main- 
tains his opinions. He exhibits the peculiar and 
rare excellence as a public speaker, founded upon 
good sense and good taste, of never rising above or 
falling below his subject, saying just enough and no 
more, and just as it ought to be said. 

I cannot even make a passing allusion to his vari- 
ous speeches, on the numerous and important sub- 
jects brought before the Senate, while he was a mem- 
ber of that body. But his memory and his fame are 
so closely and inseparably identified with the oppo- 
sition made to the protecting system by himself in 
Congress, and by South Carolina in the character of 
a sovereign party to the federal compact, that \ 
should violate the most sacred obligations of friend- 
ship and of duty, if I did not exhibit, with all the fi- 
delity of history, the part he acted on that memora- 
ble question, in Congress, in the State Convention, 
and finally as the Chief Magistrate of the State. 

In every stage of its progress in the federal legis- 
lature, he was the able, vigilant, eloquent and uncom- 
promising opponent of that system. When the tariflf 
of 1824 came before the Senate, he made one of his 
earliest and most successful efforts as a debater in 
that body, in opposition to it, exhibiting at the same 
time a comprehensive knowledge of the true princi- 
ples of political economy and a thorough and mi- 
nute knowledge of facts and details, which enabled 
him to demonstrate how grossly those principles were 



28 

violated by that measure. He replied, I think most 
triumphantly, to the speech made by Mr. Clay in the 
House of Representatives, during the same session, 
exposing the shallow plausibilities, and overturning 
the lumbering })iles of misapi)lied statistics, upon 
which the great author of that system of injustice, 
error and delusion, had been obliged to rest it. In 
that speech he distinctly denied the constitutional 
power of Congress to impose duties upon imports, 
for the purpose of protecting domestic manufactures 
— being among the first, if not the very first, who had 
ever taken that ground in Congress. His efforts in 
opposition to the tariff of 1828 — the fatal consum- 
mation of that climax of unequal and oppressive 
measures, which threatened absolute destruction to 
the great agricultural interests of the exporting 
States, were in all respects equal to the momentous 
occasion. Ever at his post, and on all occasions 
prepared to meet and to drive back the strongest 
cVarapions of this " mammoth of injustice and op- 
pression," as he most appropriately styled it, he did 
every thing that human reasoning and human elo- 
(juence could do, to save the rights and interests of 
South Carolina, and the other planting States, from 
this crowning measure of legislative despotism. But 
what could human reason and human eloquence 
avail against a predetermined and infatuated majo- 
rity, composed of various interests, bound together 
by a mercenary league to plunder the exporting States 
of the Union, through the perverted forms of fede- 
ral legislation ? These were no weapons to use in 
such a contest, as the course of events too soon and 
too fatally demonstrated. Accordingly this odious 
and oppressive measure passed through all the so- 
lemn mockery of legislative forms ; and in the name 



29 

and by the niilliorily of a government claiming to be 
" paternal,'' one third of the annual income which 
South Carolina derived from the export of her great 
staples, was confiscated, for the use of the northern 
manufacturers. The annals of legislation furnish no 
parallel example of outrage upon every principle of 
freedom, consecrated by the sacrifices and the blood 
of our common ancestors in the Revolution, and up- 
on every guarantee for the enjoyment of that free- 
dom provided by the wisdom of those who formed 
the compact of our federal union. The flame of 
popular indignation and excitement burst forth si- 
multaneously in every planting State with irrepressi- 
ble violence, and this measure was universally de- 
nounced by the people in their primary assembhes, 
without distinction of party, as unconstitutional, un- 
just, and oppressive. In none of these States did 
this flame of indignant feeling burn with so great in- 
tensity, as in South Carolina : and the mind of every 
reflecting citizen was naturally led to the inquiry, 
whether there was any remedy in the reserved sove- 
reignty of the State, by which the progress of this 
insuflferable evil could be arrested, without resorting 
to the last painful remedy of withdrawing from the 
confederacy. But as one ray of hope yet remained, 
that on the extinguishment of the pubhc debt, an 
event then rapidly approaching, Congress would be 
constrained by the pubhc voice to relieve us from our 
oppressive burthens, the people of South Carolina, 
actuated by a long cherished and disinterested at- 
tachment to the Union, determined to acquiesce in 
the wrongs they suffered, until that last hope should 
be extinguished. 

In the year 1832, the payment of the pubhc debt 
having been nearly completed, all parties in Congress 



30 

could not but perceive the necessity of a very great 
reduction of the duties upon imports, if for no other 
purpose, to prevent the accumulation of a large sur- 
plus revenue, wiiich all acknowledged to be a very 
great evil, and the almost certain source of corrup- 
tion, in such a political system as ours. In order to 
anticipate any movement for a general reduction of 
duties, Mr. Clay, early in January of that year, intro- 
duced a resolution in the Senate, declaring the expe- 
diency of repealing forthwith the duties upon all ar- 
ticles imported from foreign countries, which did not 
come in competition with domestic manufactures, 
leaving the enormous duties of the prohibitory sys- 
tem entirely untouched ; and thus throwing the whole 
burthen of federal taxation upon the foreign ex- 
changes of the planting States, w^hile the manufac- 
turing States distinctly acknowledged, by the almost 
unanimous voice of their representatives, that every 
duty which would remain on the statute book, was a 
bounty to them, instead of a burthen. Our lament- 
ed friend, always too much on the alert to be surpri- 
sed by any disguised movement against the interests 
of his constituents, witJi that readiness and promp- 
titude for which he was remarkable, immediately ex- 
posed the true character of Mr. Clay's resolution, 
declarinii that it would asriiravate the evils of the 
protecting system, increase its inecpiality. and rivet 
its chains upon his constituents forever. He warn- 
ed the Senate, in the most solemn and impressive 
manner, of the dangers by which it was surrounded, 
and declared that, in " the |)resencc of that august 
body and before his God, it was his deep conviction, 
that tlic consequences to grow out of the adjustment 
of that great (question, involved the future destinies 
of this country." He olVered an amendment to the 



31 

resolution of Mr. Clay, to the eilbct tkat " all the 
existing diiiies upon articles imported from foreign 
countries be so reduced, that the amount of the pub- 
lic revenue should be sufficient to defray the expen- 
ses of the government, after the extinguishment of 
the public debt ; and that allowing a reasonable tirne 
for the gradual reduction of the present high duties 
on articles coming in competition with similar arti- 
cles made or produced within the United States, the 
duties shall be ultimately equalized, so that the duty 
on no article should, as compared with the value of 
that article, vary materially from the general aver- 
age." It is to be remarked, that this principle of 
gradual reduction was denounced by Mr. Clay as 
slow poison, leading to the inevitable destruction of 
the manufacturing interest, though it subsequently 
formed the basis of the compromise, which he had 
an active agency in producing. Our illustrious fel- 
low-citizen, reofardinjT this declaration as closinsj the 
gates of hope on his long suflering constituents, de- 
livered, one of the best sustained arguments, and 
made one of the most fervid and eloquent appeals to 
the sealed ears of our oppressors, that I ever heard 
in any deliberative assembly. He exposed, in the 
most unanswerable manner, the gross inequahty of 
the existing tariff; showing that it had produced the 
most blighting influence upon the prosperity of South 
Carolina, and the other planting States : and that it 
had proved to the Western States a most suicidal 
policy, cutting them off from their best and only cus- 
tomers, by reducing the value of their staples. He 
described, in the most glowing language of indig- 
nant patriotism, the melancholy memorials of deso- 
lation and premature decay it had produced in South 
Carolina, destroying the nourishing commerce which 



32 

once rewarded the enterprizc of the merchants of 
this city, and compclhng our ])lanters to gatiier up 
the fragments of their ruined fortunes, and deserting 
the mansions and the tombs of their ancestors, to 
fly to the wilds of the south west, in the hope of mi- 
tigating the burthens of an oppressive system whicli 
they could not hope to escape. " Sir," said he, 
" when we look at our fertile fields, and consider the 
genial climate with which God has blessed the South 
— when we contemplate the rare felicity of our po- 
sition as the producers of an article, which under a 
system of free trade would command the markets of 
the world — is it not enough to fill our hearts almost 
to bursting, to find the richest blessings that an in- 
dulgent Providence ever showered down upon any 
people, torn from us by the cruel policy of our own 
government?" He went into an analytical examina- 
tion of the true character and practical operation of 
the protecting system, demonstrating by a most pow- 
erful and lucid process of reasoning and illustration, 
its unconstitutionality, ineijuality, injustice, and op- 
pression. Coming, then, to the consideration of the 
question more immediately before the Senate — the 
policy to be adopted on the great era of the extin- 
guishment of the pubhc debt : — "We have arrived," 
said he, " at a most interesting crisis in our national 
aliairs ; one to which the i)co})le have been looking 
forward with intense anxiety, for several years past. 
They have contemplated the extinction of the pub- 
lic debt as the great day of jubilee, when they were 
to be reliev ed from the oppressions they have so long 
patiently endured. The people of the South, sir, like 
the children of Israel, have passed through the wil- 
derness, and arc now in sight of tiie promised land. 
They stand on the top of the Mount, and look with 



33 

• 

delight at the goodly prospect before them ; and it is 
for you, this day, to determine whether they shall pe- 
rish in the wilderness, or be permitted to possess and 
enjoy their rich inheritance.*"' He exposed the plau- 
sible but deceptive scheme of reduction proposed by 
Mr. Clay, and demonstrated that it would aggravate 
the grievances under which we were then suffering, 
by increasing the inequality and injustice, which, 
more than the aggregate amount of the burthens it 
imposed, rendered the protective system so justly 
odious and intolerable to the planting States. He 
showed that the whole ^stem thus modified would 
be tyranny and taxation to us, protection and bounty 
to them. " We insist," said he, "that this is a vio- 
lation of the principles on which our government is 
founded, and reduces us to a state of colonialVassal- 
age." " Let not gentlemen," said he, '• deceive them- 
selves so far as to suppose that the opposition of the 
South to the protecting system, is not based on high 
and lofty principles. It has nothing to do with party 
politics or the mere elevation of men. It rises far 
above all such considerations. The spirit with which 
we have entered into this !)usiness, is akin to that 
which was kindled in the bosoms of our fathers when 
they were made the victims of oppression ; and if it 
has not displayed itself in the same way, it is because 
we have ever cherished the strongest feeling of con- 
fraternity towards our brethren, and the warmest and 
most devoted attachment to the Union, If we have 
been in any degree divided amongst ourselves in this 
matter, the source of that division, let gentlemen be 
assured, has not arisen so much from any diiicrence 
of opinion as to the true character of the oppression, 
as from the different degrees of iiope entertained of 
redress. All parties have been looking forward for 

5 



34 

years past to this crisis for the I'ultihncnt of their 
hopes, or the confirmation of their fears. And God 
grant that the result may be auspicious.'' 

" Sir, I call upon gentlemen on all sides of the 
House, to meet us in the true spirit of conciliation 
and concession. Remove, I earnestly beseech you, 
from among us, this never failing source of conten- 
tion. Restore that harmony which has been disturb- 
ed, that mutual affection and confidence which have 
been impaired. Dry up at its source this fountain of 
the waters of bitterness. It is in your power to do it 
this day, by doing equal justice to all. And be as- 
sured that he to whom the country shall be indebted 
for this blessing, will be considered the second foun- 
der of the Republic. He will be regarded in all af- 
ter times as the ministering angel visiting the trou- 
bled waters of political dissension, and restoring to 
the element its healing virtues." 

Such was the lofty spirit of patriotism and liberty 
which pervaded this great eftbrt of our illustrious 
fellow citizen, to rescue South Carolina from her un- 
constitutional and oppressive burthens, and to pre- 
vent the occurrence of that conflict of sovereign 
authorities which he saw to be unavoidable, if these 
burthens were not removed. The effect it produced 
upon every impartial auditor may be inferred from 
the remark of a very talented and accomplished 
lady, who resided in a manufacturing State. '• When 
I heard General Hayne,*' said she, '^pourtray the 
wronfTs of South Carolina with so much eloquence, 
and appeal to her oppressors in a spirit so generous 
and patriotic, I could scarcely command myself; and 
I almost felt, that woman as I am, I could take up 
arms in her defence." Such was the noble senti- 
ment excited in a mind unsophisticated and unper- 



35 

verted by selfish ends, and open to the force of truth 
and the claims of justice. But widely different was 
the impression made upon those grave and potent 
Senators who were sitting in the solemn mockery of 
judgment, to decide how far they should persevere 
in a system which made them rich, " but made us 
poor indeed." Reason and eloquence had no power 
to relax the grasp of our oppressors. Accordingly 
the principles of Mr. Clay's resolution were embo- 
died in a Bill which passed both Houses of Congress 
and received the sanction of the President; and it 
was openly declared by the whole Tariff party, of 
both political denominations, to be " the settled policy 
of the countr^y The last feeble ray of hope was thus 
extinguished, and it remained for South Carolina to 
decide whether she would permit her citizens to live 
under a perpetual curse which violated their rights, 
blasted their prosperity, and subverted their liberties, 
or arrest its desolating progress by interposing the 
sacred shield of her sovereign power — a power "in- 
estimable to us and formidable to tyrants only." — 
Having reached this eventful crisis in the political 
history of South Carolina, and in the life of our dis- 
tinguished fellow citizen, let us pause for a moment, 
and consider dispassionately the causes which pro- 
duced our memorable controversy with the Federal 
Government, and the principles involved m that con- 
troversy. South Carolina was an exporting State, 
and her great staple productions derived their value 
principally from the demand for them in foreign mar- 
kets, and the free exchange of them for foreign man- 
ufactures. Congress possessed the power to impose 
duties upon foreign imports, but this power is express- 
ly limited to the object of raismg revenue. Congress 
possessed the power to regulate commerce with for- 



36 

eign nations, but lor the sole purpose of extending 
and protecting it. In this state of things, when the 
federal treasury was full to overflowing, and there 
was not a shadow of coniphaint against any foreign 
power for any imputed violation of our commercial or 
national rights; that body, securing a majority by 
bribing various other interests to unite with the man- 
ufacturmg interest, and by means of certain political 
combinations connected with the presidential election, 
passed that most extraordinary compound of hetero- 
geneous and conflicting elements, the Tariff" of 1828; 
a measure consistent in nothing but its remorseless 
wickedness and oppression, and which may be em- 
phatically said to have been "-born in sin, and brought 
forth in iniijuity." I exempt neither of the great po- 
litical parties of the time from the odium that should 
forever rest upon the authors of this infamous mea- 
sure. It was a contest between them which should 
bid highest in Southern plunder for presidential votes, 
and the principles of tlie constitution, as well as the 
interests of nine sovereign States, were bartered 
away in an inglorious struggle for political power. 
The Tariff' of l{J.i2, as we have seen, aggravated all 
the enormities of that of 11528, by increasing its in- 
equality. What, then, was the constitutional, and 
what the actual relation, ot the Federal Government 
to South Carolina? Congress was constitutionally 
bound to preserve, protect, iind extend our commerce, 
this being the primary cause of calling the Conven- 
tion that lormed the federal constitution ; yet did 
that Congress, regardless alike of its most solemn 
constitutional duties and the principles of eternal 
justice, pass laws the (avowed Pobject and obvious 
tendency of which were to annihilate a branch of 
that commerce vast in its extent, lawful in its charac- 



37 

tcr, beneficial in its general results, and absolutely 
essential to the prosperity of the planting States, for 
the unrighteous and partial purpose of nourishing and 
sustaining the manufacturing and other interests of 
distant States of the confederacy. Congress was un- 
der the most sacred obligation so to regulate the du- 
ties imposed under the revenue power as to produce 
the utmost practicable equality in the burthens they 
imposed on the different States of the Union ; yet did 
that Congress impose duties ranging from 50 to 200 
per cent, on our foreign exchanges which were avow- 
edly designed to operate as bounties to the manufac- 
turing States, while they operated as a twofold bur- 
then of taxation and prohibition on all the States 
producing our great staples of exportation. South 
Carolina found herself placed in an extraordinary po- 
sition in relation to her commercial exchanges. She 
exhibited the singular spectacle of a sovereign State, 
in a confederacy of equals, deprived of the right of 
bringing the productfons of her own industry through 
her own custom houses, without paying a duty equal 
to half their value as a bounty to certain of her con- 
federate States, while the very same description of 
productions made by the industry of those confeder- 
ates, was admitted through those custom houses 
without paying any duty at all. Thus did the arbitra- 
ry and tyrannical legislation of Congress make this 
enormous discrimination between the productions of 
the different States, diminishing the value of the one 
class as compared with that of the other in exact pro- 
portion to this discrimination. 

In fact we were reduced to the very worst condi- 
tion of colonial dependence, and tributary vassalage, 
which the world has witnessed since the Proconsular 
despotism of Rome over her conquered provinces, 



3« 

aggravated by the consideration tliat the free, sove- 
reign, and independent States ot a confederacy of 
equals, were thus degraded and oppressed, in palpa- 
ble violation of the compact of their political union, 
and in utter contempt oi every principle of that glo- 
rious struggle, by which they had achieved their com- 
mon independence, and their common liberties. The 
colonial restrictions and unconstitutional taxes impo- 
sed upon our conmion ancestors by Great Britain, 
were " trifles light as air,*' in comparison with those 
imposed upon ns, under the perverted forms of a 
free government. Nor were the principles upon 
which these burthens were imposed upon us, less 
subversive of all the constitutional guarantees of our 
liberty. In a confederacy of many States, having va- 
rious and conflicting interests, the limitations of the 
constitution furnish the only safeguard for these pe- 
culiar and separate interests, the guardianship of 
which has been wisely reserved to the States. The 
principle of representative responsibility, except as 
to those common interests which have been commit- 
ted to the charge of the federal government, is the 
most empty and delusive of all the securities of li- 
berty. It may indeed be said, that the most odious 
and intolerable of all the known forms of despotism, 
is that of an interested majority in a confederated 
government, acting upon the separate peculiar inter- 
ests of a minority, by usurping powers not granted 
by the compact formed for the express purpose of 
restraining that majority, and protecting that mino- 
rity. 

Indeed, the principle of representative responsi- 
bility was converted into a principle of despotism, 
the moment the federal government usurped the pow- 
er of invading the sanctuary of private property 



39 

and State jurisdiction, by assuming to regulate the 
whole industry of the country, and tix the value of its 
productions, according to its arbitrary will. For the 
majority in Congress, who imposed the duties of the 
protecting system, were not the representatives of 
those who bore the burthen, but of those who re- 
ceived the bounty resulting from those duties. They 
constituted, therefore, a heartless, mercenary, and ir- 
responsible despotism, which, ''feeling power and 
forgetting right," was deaf to every claim, and dead 
to every sense of justice. To have hoped for a re- 
dress of our grievances under such auspices, after 
the passage of the tariff of 1832, avowedly estab- 
lishing the settled policy of the country, would have 
been to look for a special interposition of Providence, 
changing the whole nature of man. And 1 here so- 
lemnly declare, that it is my deliberate conviction, 
thai we should have been this day laboring under 
the unmitigated curse of the protecting system, but 
for the noble and heroic attitude assumed by South 
Carolina. That system was in its very nature pro- 
gressive, acquiring from every increase additional 
strength and voracity — a monster, indeed, " that de- 
rived mcrease of appetite from what it fed on," with 
a power as omnipotent as its appetite was insatiable. 
Under these circumstances, our illustrious fellow-ci- 
tizen, and his associates in Congress, having witness- 
ed the progress, and studied the genius of this sys- 
tem, during eight years of unavailing remonstrances 
and protests, came to the solemn conclusion that 
" patience had ceased to be a virtue," and that sub- 
mission had ceased to be a duly. Fellow-citizens, 
the excitement connected with these transactions 
has long since subsided — many of the prominent ac- 
tors have been gathered to their fathers, and the 



40 

transactions themselves belon" to history. Yet while 
preparing this brief notice of them in the retirement 
of my chamber, such were the recollections excited, 
that my blood boiled within me, my whole frame was 
agitated, and my pen almost refused to do its office. 
What, then, must have been the indignant excite- 
ment of our delegation in Congress, when they stood 
by as unwilling witnesses, and saw the sacred rights 
and vital interests of South Carolina, immolated on 
the unholy altars of avarice and ambition ? Would 
they not have proved recreant to every duty of pa- 
triotism, if they had advised the State to tarnish the 
ensigns of her sovereign power, by a perpetual sub- 
mission to a system which reduced her to a condition 
of colonial vassalage, and her citizens to poverty and 
ruin ? Let posterity answer this question. 1 confi- 
dently appeal to the judgment of that impartial tri- 
bunal. 

I do most solemnly and conscientiously believe — 
and the opinion has not been hastily formed, nor is it 
lightly hazarded — that if the oppressive burthens to 
which South Carolina was subjected, had not been 
disguised and concealed from the view of the j)eo- 
pleby the indirect mode of their operation, they would 
have been sufficient to have driven any civilized po- 
pulation in Europe, to the extremity of throwing them 
otrby open rcbelUon. The revolution which brought 
Charles the 1st of England to the block, and that 
which drove Charles the 10th of France into exile, 
and finally elevated the houses of Orange and Or- 
leans to the respective thrones of these two king- 
doms, were not produced by usurpations and oppres- 
sions by any means so aggravated and intolerable, 
as those wiiich induced South Carolina to resort to 
the more solemn, deliberate, and peaceful remedy, 



41 

afforded by the peculiar structure of our federal sys- 
tem. It remains, then, that I very briefly exhibit the 
part acted by our illustrious fellow-citizen, in ex- 
pounding and enforcing this remedy. It was his for- 
tune to be the first to declare and vindicate, in Con- 
gress, the sovereign right of a State, under the fede- 
ral compact, to interpose her sovereign power to ar- 
rest the operation of an unconstitutional act of Con- 
gress, within her own limits. It was on the occa- 
sion of the celebrated contest between himself and 
Mr. Webster, incidentally arising on a proposition 
relative to the public lands. In the course of some 
remarks on that subject, he deprecated a large and 
permanent public treasure as a means of corrupting 
and consolidating the government. Mr. Webster, 
evidently with a premeditated design of assailing 
South Carolina, seized the occasion to disparage her 
domestic institutions, to ridicule the apprehension 
of danger from consolidating the government, to 
charge her citizens with disaffection to the union, 
and to speak contemptuously of what he called the 
South Carolina doctrine. Our lamented friend, more 
deeply excited than I ever saw him. on any other oc- 
casion, by this gratuitous and unprovoked attack 
upon his State, her doctrines, and her institutions, 
made an able and successful defence at every point 
against which the attack had been directed. After 
retorting the charge of disaflection to the Union, by 
exposing the conduct of the federal party in Massa- 
chusetts during the late war with Great Britain, and 
vindicating the institutions of the South against the 
disparaging remarks which had been made by Mr. 
Webster, he replied to his contemptuous alkision to 
what he was "pleased to call the South Carolina 
doctrine," by demonstrating from the Virginia and 

6 



42 

Kentucky resolutions, drawn up by Mr. Madison and 
Mr. Jefferson, that it was in fact the doctrine of 
these two States, and these two illustrious patriots — ■ 
the very doctrine that had overthrown the federal 
party of 1798, and placed the authors of these reso- 
lutions successively at the head of the government. 
As Mr. Webster, in the then existing state of his po- 
litical relations, could not safely venture to deny the 
authority of these two great expounders of the fede- 
ral constitution, nothing could have been more em- 
barrassing than this judicious and well executed 
movement of his skilful antagonist. It completely ar- 
rested his crusade against South Carolina, by inter- 
posing the authority of two high minded States, and 
two venerated names — an authority, too, so clear 
and explicit, as to preclude the possibility of eva- 
ding it, or explaining it away. The reply of Mr. 
Webster, so much eulogized by his admirers — and 
undoubtedly a powerful display of controversial dia- 
lectics — was made under the excitement naturally 
produced by being thus baffled in his plan of inva- 
ding South Carolina, and compelled to assume a de- 
fensive position. 

It was distinguished by all that self possession and 
power of sarcasm and invective, for which he is re- 
markable ; but though few men are his superiors as 
a mere argumentative debater, I think the impartial 
historian who shall record this intellectual conilict 
will pronounce, that on the great question at issue, 
his distin<Tuished adversary achieved a decided vie- 
tory. This will be made apparent, by bricHy stating 
the prominent positions assumed by Mr. Webster, in 
his exposition of our political system, and the man- 
ner in which ihey were refuted — bearing in mind that 
he did not, and dared not dispute the authority of the 



43 

Virginia and Kentucky resolutions, sanctioned by the 
venerated names of Madison and Jefferson. His 
great and fundamental proposition, that which gave 
character to his whole theory, was, that the people 
of the United States, in their aggregate capacity as 
one nation, made and adopted the constitution, by 
which the federal government was brought into ex- 
istence. It was rejoined, that this proposition was 
directly and palpably contradicted by history, and 
most explicitly by the resolutions, which he did not 
venture to controvert. That the federal convention 
was composed of delegates elected by the States, 
acting separately through their Legislatures ; that 
these delegates voted in the convention, not as a 
common mass, but as the representatives of their 
respective States, each State, without regard to its 
population, having one vote as a sovereign equal ; 
and that the constitution thus formed, was adopted 
by the several States, each acting separately in its 
highest sovereign capacity. That these were noto- 
rious historical facts, and that the substance of them . 
was thus plainly stated by Mr. Madison, in the Virgi- 
nia resolutions : — " The constitution of the United 
States, was formed by the sanction of the States, 
given by each in its sovereign capacity." The next 
proposition of Mr. Webster, the legitimate offspring 
of the former, was, that the federal governmeat has 
the exclusive right to determine the extent of its own 
powers, and that the Supreme Court was the organ 
through which that determination should be made in 
the last resort. To this it was rejoined, that it was 
a political solecism to talk about a division of pow- 
ers between sovereigns, and yet to assume the exclu- 
sive right of one of these sovereigns to determine 
the extent of its own power, and by necessary con- 



44 

sequence to limit the power of tlic other at its dis- 
cretion. That liowever true it was in a simple con- 
solidated government, that this right of exclusive and 
final judgment existed, it was absolutely incompati- 
ble with the very notion of a confederated govern- 
ment, formed between independent, sovereign States, 
by a constitutional compact, defining the powers to 
be exercised by their common agents, for their com- 
mon benefit, and reserving all other powers to them- 
selves respectively. Here also the Virginia and 
Kentucky resolutions were too clear, to be refined 
away by any logical subtlety. The former declare, 
"that it is a plain principle founded on common 
sense, illustrated by common practice, and essential 
to the nature of compacts, that where resort can be 
had to no common superior to the authority of the 
parties, the parties themselves must be the rightful 
judges in the last resort, whether the bargain made 
has been pursued or violated."' The Kentucky reso- 
lutions speak even a stronger language : '• that the 
.government created by this compact, was not made 
the exclusive or final judge of the extent of the pow- 
ers delegated to itself, .since that would have made 
its discretion, and not the constitution, the measure 
of its powers ; but that as in all cases of a compact 
among parties having no common judge, each party 
has an equal right to judge for itself, as well of in- 
fractions, as of the mode and measure of redress." 
And again: ".That the principle and construction 
contended for by several of the State Legislatures, 
that the General Government is the exclusive judge 
of the powers delegated to it, stop nothing short of 
despotism ; since the discretion of those who admin- 
ister the government, and not the constitution, would 
be the measure of their powers." Before these high 



45 

authorities and lucid expositions, Mr. Webster seem- 
ed to cower, for not pretending to resist, he made a 
very feeble attempt to evade them, by giving them a 
construction in direct contradiction to their plain and 
Hteral import. 

The last leading proposition of Mr. Webster was 
that in no case of federal usurpation and oppression, 
however enormous, could a State interpose its sove- 
reign authority to protect the rights, property, and 
liberties of its citizens against an unauthorized Act 
of Congress, without incurring the guilt of treason, 
in the persons of her functionaries. To this it was 
rejoined, that the idea of a State committing treason, 
against its confederates, or against any human au- 
thority, was inconsistent with the first elementary no- 
tion of sovereignty, and was essentially founded up- 
on the assumption that the States were dependent 
corporations, or unorganized masses of individuals. 
That the interposition of a State in cases of gross 
usurpation and oppression, was a rightful and con- 
stitutional remedy, and being the act of a sovereign 
power through its civil organs, was in itself peaceful, 
and could only be made othcrwuse by the lawless ap- 
plication of force on the part of the Federal Gov- 
ernment. In short, that it was the happy expedient 
of resisting intolerable opjx-ession, and coercing a 
compromise, under our federal system, in cases which 
would produce civd war and revolution under other 
forms of government. These positions were unan- 
swerably sustained by the Vn-ginia and Kentucky 
resolutions. 

The former declare, " that in case of a deliberate, 
palpable, and dangerous exercise of powers not gran- 
ted by the said compact, the States who are parties 
thereto, have the right, and are in duty bound, to in- 



46 

terpose for arresting the progress of the evil, and for 
maintaining witliin their respective limits, the author- 
ities, rights, and liberties appertaining to them." 

Those of Kentucky declare, '-that the several 
States who formed that instrument, (the federal com- 
pact,) being sovereign and independent, have the un- 
questionable right to judge of its infraction, and that 
a nullification by those sovereignties of all unauthor- 
ized acts, done under color of that instrument, is the 
rightful remedy." Mr. Jeffersopj adds on another 
occasion, " it is the peculiar felicity of our constitu- 
tion, to have provided this peaceable appeal where 
that of other nations is at once to force." Nothing 
can be more conclusive than these authorities. 

Such is a brief outline of this celebrated senato- 
rial conflict, and 1 think eVery impartial judge will 
agree that the great champion of a consolidated go- 
vernment, without limitation of powers, was com- 
pletely overthrown. 

Three years afterwards, when the progress of 
events had brouirht on the crisis which constrained 
South Carolina to maintain and exercise practically 
those sovereign rights and powers, which had been 
so ably vindicated m the Federal Senate, by our la- 
mented fellow citizen, he was chosen a member of 
the State Convention. As Chairman of the Commit- 
tee of Twenty-one, he reported the Ordinance of 
JN unification, preceded by an able and elociuent expo- 
sition of our wrongs, showing the utter hopelessness 
of redress from Congress, and the undoubted right 
and solemn duty of the State to make void the un- 
constitutional acts by which those wrongs were in- 
flicted. A short time after the passage of this im- 
portant measure, he was elected Governoi* of the 
State — a station of the very highest responsibility in 



47 

the then critical state of our relations with the Fed- 
eral Government, and demanding the rarest combi- 
nation of talents to meet the possible exigencies 
which misht nvow out of these relations. No higher 
evidence could have been given by the State of her 
confidence in his wisdom, firmness, prudence and pa- 
triotic devotion ; and never was public confidence 
more fully justified, or public expectation more com- 
pletely fulfilled, than by the consummate ability with 
which he performed his arduous duties. 

On assuming this high trust, obviously impressed 
with a profound sense of the eventful issues which 
might grow out of the crisis, the sacred principles in- 
volved in the approaching contest, and his own solemn 
and responsible duties, he delivered an address, which 
for lofty and heroic patriotism, soul-inspiring elo- 
quence, and perfect adaptation to the occasion, 
was never surpassed by any similar effort. After 
presenting a lucid exposition of our wrongs, of 
the sovereign right and duty of the State to ar- 
rest their progress, and alluding to the possibility 
of an attempt on the part of our federal rulers 
to reduce her to subjection by military force, he 
thus proceeds : " She has warned her brethren of 
the inevitable consequences of an appeal to arms ; 
and if she shall be driven, in defence of her dearest 
rights, to resist aggression, let it be remembered that 
the innocent blood which may be shed in such a 
contest, will, on the great day of account, be re- 
quired of those who shall persevere in the unhal- 
lowed attempt to exercise an " unwarrantable juris- 
diction over us." If such, fellow citizens, should be 
our lot, if the sacred soil of Carolina should be pol- 
luted by the footsteps of an invader, or be stained 
by the blood of her citizens, shed in her defence, I 



trust in Almighty God, that no son of hers, native or 
adopted, who has been nourished at her bosom, or 
cherished by her bounty, will be found raising a parri- 
cidal arm against our common mother." '-Should 
she succeed, 'her's will be glory enough to have led 
the way in the noble work of reform. And if, after 
making these efforts, due to her own honor, and the 
greatness of the cause, she is destined utterly to fail, 
the bitter fruits of that failure, not to herself alone, 
but to the entire South, nay, to the whole Union, will 
attest her virtue. The speedy establishment upon 
the ruins of the rights of the States, and the liber- 
ties of the people, of a great consolidated govern- 
ment, '• riding and ruling over the plundered plough- 
man, and beggared yeomanry,'' of our once happy 
land — our glorious confederacy broken into shat- 
tered and dishonored fragments — the light of liberty 
extinguished never perhaps to be relumed — these — 
these will be the melancholy memorials of that wis- 
dom which saw the danger while vet at a distance, 
and of that patriotism which struggled gloriously to 
avert it ; memorials over which repentant though 
unavailing tears will assuredly be shed, by those who 
will discover, when too late, that they have suffered 
the last occasion to pass away when the liberties of 
the country might have been redeemed, and the 
Union established upon a foundation as enduring as 
the everlasting rocks. fVc may not live to witness 
these things. To some of us it may not be allotted ' 
to survive the republic. Hut if we are only true to 
our duty, our example will, in that dark hour, be a 
rich Icijacv to our children — and which of us would 
desire a higher reward than to have it inscribed on 
his tomb, " here lies the man who sacrificed himself 
in a noble ellort to rescue the Constitution Irom vio- 



49 

lation, and to restore the liberties of liis country." 
Fellow citizens, "this is our own, our native land ;^'' 
it is the soil of Carolina which has been enriched by 
the precious blood of our ancestors, shed in defence 
of those rights and liberties, which we are bound by 
every tie, divine and human, to transmit unimpaired 
to our posterity. It is here we have been cherished 
in youth and sustained in manhood, by the generous 
confidence of our fellow citizens ; here repose the 
honored bones of our fathers; here the eyes of our 
children first beheld the light, and here when our 
earthly pilgrimage is over, we hope to sink to rest in 
the bosom of our common mother. Bound to our 
country by such sacred and endearing ties, let others 
desert her if they can; let them revile her if they 
will ; let them give aid and countenance to her ene- 
mies if they may ; but for us, we will stand or fall 
WITH Carolin-v." Engaored in the service of the 
State on a different theatre, it was not my fortune to 
hear this noble eftusion of patriotic eloquence, but I 
can confidently say that I have read nothing in the 
fjpeeches of the great Athenian Orator delivered on 
a similar occasion, against the usurping tyrant of 
Macedonia, in any respect more powerful. Of the 
effect it produced on them who heard it, let one of 
our distinguished citizens who was present — himself 
among the most eloquent speakers of our country — 
bear testimony. " It was," said he, " one of the most 
successhil displays of eloquence I ever heard. It in- 
spired the hearers with irrepressible enthusiasm, 
which burst forth in involuntary plaudits. I was agi- 
tated and subdued under its infiuence ; many wept 
from excitement, and all, of all parties, were carried 
away, entranced by the magic powers of the speaker." 
Such, my fellow citizens, were the principles and 

7 



50 

purposes which animated our illustrious fellow citi- 
zen, when he assumed the helm of our State amidst 
the troubled elements that surrounded her, and which, 
combined with consummate prudence, indexible firm- 
ness, and unconquerable perseverance, enabled him 
to carry her triumphantly through the storm which 
soon afterwards threatened to overwhelm her. It is ' 
a strong proof ihat a just Providence takes sides 
with the feeble in their noble, daring, and apparently 
hopeless struggles for their rights and liberties, that 
he always raises up in such great emergencies, some 
leader endowed with qualilications suited to the oc- 
casion. Never was this sign of an approving Provi- 
dence more clearly given than in the present instance. 
Our chief was the personification, if 1 may so speak, 
of the great principles of our contest, and of the 
qualities necessary to conduct it. We were in the 
midst of conflicting opinions and violent party ex- 
citement at home, every moment liable to be roused 
into a flame which blood only could extinguish, and 
requiring the highest prudence to prevent so fatal a 
disaster; he possessed that prudence. We were 
threatened with overwhelming power from without, 
sufficient to appal any but the stoutest hearts, and to 
produce faltering in any but the firmest purposes, re- 
quiring eloquence to animate, firmness and courage 
to inspire confidence ; he possessed that eloquence, 
firmness and courage. We were beleaguered by the 
naval and military forces of the United States, and 
heard the distant notes of ))rcparation for a great 
military crusade against South Carolina, demanding 
the highest powers of military combination to be 
prepared lor the defence of our firesides and our al- 
tars; he displayed those ])owers. in a word, the 
great variety of difficult and responsible duties, civil 



51 

and military, which devolved upon the Governor and 
Commander-in-Chief in the peculiar conjuncture of 
our affairs, required great wisdom to prepare for 
every contingency ; and he possessed that wisdom. 
In confirmation of what I have here said, permit me 
to quote the opinions of those who were in the midst 
of the scenes of which they speak, and eminently 
^qualified to form correct opinions from the incidents 
they relate. One of the most pious and intelligent 
clergymen of our country, who lived in this city dur- 
ing the whole period of our difficulties and dangers, 
and was a near and intimate neio^hbor of the Gov- 
ernor, after relating an incident, illustrating his great 
prudence and self-possession, by which your streets 
were in all human probability prevented from being 
stained with civil blood, says : " upon every review 
of the events of that fearful crisis, I am well con- 
vinced that Robert Y. Hayne was an instrument, 
prepared by Heaven, to save the country from the 
horrors of a civil war. No other human being, but 
he alone, could have controlled those angry elements, 
and guided the State through that stormy period 
without a collision of arms. Every day of my hfe 
I thanked God for such a man, and supplicated the 
throne of mercy m his behalf until the danger was 
past." To show in what manner he answered the 
notorious Proclamation of President Jackson, which, 
if its principles and threats had been carried into ex- 
ecution, would have struck every star from our politi- 
cal firmament, and consolidated our federal republic 
in the blood of its citizents, I again quote the lan- 
guage of the distinguished citizen heretofore men- 
tioned, who was then a member of the Legislature. 
" There was a remarkable instance of that entire 
readiness for each emergency as it occurred, in the 



rr2 

manner in which he met the notorious Proclamation 
of General Jackson against South Carolina. That 
document which spread terror with its progress 
through the Union, arrived at Columbia, when the 
Legislature was in Session, and was at 10 o'clock 
laid before the Committee of Federal Relations. — 
Whilst that committee had it under consideration, 
the Chairman stepped into the Executive Chamber,! 
and enquired of the Governor whether he would un- 
dertake a prompt and official reply to the Proclama- 
tion. The Governor replied, "I will undertake it if 
the Legislature so desire." At the meeting of the 
House, the Committee reported the Proclamation, 
with a set of Resolutions, among which was one re- 
questing the Governor to issue his counter-Proclama- 
tion. In two days afterwards, in as little time as was 
necessary for the mere penmanship, there was issued 
a document, whose elegance of composition, elabo- 
rate and conclusive arguments, just and clear con- 
stitutional exposition, confuted all the show of argu- 
ment in the President's Proclamation; tearing away 
the subtle disguises ufits labored sophistry, and rous- 
ing by its tone of proud defiance, devoted patriotism, 
and spirited rebuke, the highest feelings of the coun- 
try. No performance could have been more perfect 
for the occasion, and I doubt whether such a docu- 
ment has ever been thrown olV in the same space of 
time." 

It was confidently anticipated by the authors and 
instigators of the Proclamation, that the people of 
South Carolina would promptly obey its imperial man- 
date, by "snatching from the archives of the State" 
that glorious " Ordinance," which will attest to fu- 
ture generations their exalted patriotism, and heroic 
devoted love of liberty. In fact, it comes within my 



53 

own knowledge, that this was the prevaihng opinion 
at Washington, and that such were the artful plausi- 
bihties which threw a veil over the horrid features of 
that Proclamation, that many of the truest and bold- 
est friends of South Carolina, considered her destiny 
as sealed, and absolutely " des[)aired of the Repub- 
lic." But when the counter Proclamation tore off 
this veil, and exposed the monster in all its naked 
deformity, the reaction was overwhelming, not only 
in South Carolina, but in all the other Southern States, 
and voluntary offers of military service, in defence 
of our great cause, poured in from every quarter. It 
roused tho citizens of South Carohna to the most 
exalted pitch of enthusiasm, and I have often said, 
as I sincerely believe, that in the most glorious days 
•of Greece and Rome, these illustrious States never 
displayed a more self-devoted patriotism, a purer spirit 
of liberty, or a more heroic and unconquerable resolu- 
tion to defend it, than our citizens, of all classes, exhi- 
bited in that unexpected and fearful emergency. It 
was that heroic spirit, inflamed by the eloquence, and 
directed by the wisdom and firmness of our illustrious 
fellow citizen, that carried South Carolina triumphant- 
ly through the dangers and difhculties of this perilous 
and unequal contest, and secured for the whole South 
a victory, which the mere wisdom of her statesmen, 
and eloquence of her orators, could never have achiev- 
ed in Congress. We have been many years enjoying 
the fruits of that victory, in their progressive deve- 
lopement, and have now a cheering prospect before 
us, of realizing, at no distant day, all that his anxious 
and patriotic hopes anticipated fiom this great strug- 
gle for our constitutional rights and liberties. And 
though, in the inscrutable dispensations ofan all-wise 
Providence, it has not been allotted to him to witness 



54 

• 

this complete consummation of his ardent liopcs, 
and this high reward of his patriotic labors ; yet will 
those labors be recollected, and his memory cherished, 
with admiration and gratitude, throughout the South- 
ern States, as long as patriotism shall be deemed a 
virtue, constitutional liberty a blessinij, or the sove- 
reign rights and powers of the States tiie means of 
preserving it. 

I have now brought to a close this very imperfect 
outline of his early life and public services. Imperfect 
as it is, it so fully illustrates his character, that very 
little remains but to group together that rare combina- 
tion of high endowments and shining virtues, disclosed 
by every page of the narrative, which make up the 
portrait of a virtuous man, an incorruptible patriot, 
an eloquent orator, and a profound statesman. The» 
intellectual endowment that gave to his mind its dis- 
tinctive character was a sound and discriminating 
judgment, that great master faculty of the human 
intellect, without which, all the others, even in the 
most dazzling combinations of genius, are but wan- 
dering exhalations of the night, which serve only to 
bewilder and mislead those who commit themselves 
to their ujuidance. And when we consider that it is 
very little more than the power of applying the prin- 
ciples of common sense to the aftairs of human life, 
great and small, in their various changes and combi- 
nations, it is wonderful to reflect how rarely it is found 
in those who are the rulers of mankind. In our il- 
lustrious and lamented fellow citizen, this cardinal 
faculty was united with those high moral quali- 
ties, justice, conscienciousness, firmness, and perse- 
verance, which gave a wise direction to its decisions 
and energy to their execution. A very long and inti- 
mate acquaintance justifies me in saying that I never 



55 



have known any public man, who more habitually 
acted under the influence of a deep and conscien- 
cious sense of the obligations of duty. It was, in- 
deed, the governing motive and animating principle 
of his whole conduct. All other considerations were 
absorbed in it. But it was not so much by any one 
faculty, standing out in prominent relief, as by the 
admirable adjustment of all his moral and intelkc- 
tual qualities, that he was distinguished from other 
men. So harmonious, indeed, were these endow- 
ments, so perfect was their symmetry, and so entirely 
free from the contrast of opposing qualities, that we 
almost lost sight of each particular trait in our ad- 
miration of the beautiful and consistent whole. It 
was this happy concord of high moral and intehec- 
tual qualities, all acting in concert, and mutually sus- 
taining each other, that rendered him, in every emer- 
gency of his eventful career, in all respects equal to 
the occasion. In a word, they constituted wisdom 
in council, and unfaltering firmness and self-posses- 
sion in action — qualities for which few men have 
been so eminently distinguished. Permit me to in- 
troduce a testimonial on these points, which every 
one present will receive with respect and confidence. 
During those fearlul scenes in this city, which fol- 
lowed the Proclamation of the President of the Uni- 
ted States, against South Carolina, frequent consulta- 
tions were held by the Governor with some of the 
most distinguished of his political friends, to decide 
upon the course proper to be pursued m the probable 
emergency of an attempt to arrest the Governor, or 
an invasion of South Carolina. At these consulta- 
tions, the venerable Judge Colcock, whose loss we so 
justly deplore, was usually present ; and speaking to 
a friend, of those trying times, some years afterwards, 



.6 ^ 

he emphatically said : " Hayne is the wisest man I 
ever met in Council : and with all his characteristic 
prudence, he never falters where even the bravest 
might hesitate." High as his intellectual endow- 
ments undoubtedly were, his moral qualities were still 
more strikingly developed. He was a wise man in 
the highest sense of the expression. He not only 
possessed the mere intellectual power of adapting 
his means to his ends, but he possessed the still higher 
quality of so directing that power, that '' all the ends 
he aimed at were his country's, his God's, and 
truth's." It resulted from all this that his public ca- 
reer was singularly and uniformly fortunate, and that 
his character was never exposed, even during the 
most angry and embittered strife of contending par- 
ties, to a momentary imputation, which could cast the 
slightest blemish on his fame. He was always a 
popular favorite, uniformly retaining the contidcnce 
of his fellow citizens, though few public men were 
more perfectly free from those vulgar arts and degra- 
ding compliances, by which popularity is but too fre- 
quently sought, and too h-equently acquired. And it 
is a fact every way worthy of being recorded to his 
own honor, and as an example to all youthful aspi- 
rants after distinction and fame, in the service of their 
country, that during his whole career as a public man, 
commencing at a very early age, and embracing al- 
most every grade of office, civil and military, he ne- 
ver, in a single instance, solicited, even in the most 
indirect manner, the sulfrage of a fellow citizen. 
How august would be the assemblages of the people 
to exercise the high prerogative of self-government, 
if all the candidates for their favor would follow this 
noble example I In commending it to the rising 
generation of public men, I can confidently assure 



57 

them that it indicates the only certain means of 
placing their popularity on the solid foundation of 
public confidence, which is always extended as a vo- 
luntary offering to worth and talents, the more freely 
for being unsolicited. 

I have known very few public men who were so 
entirely exempt, as he was, from the hateful passions 
of envy towards those who might be regarded as his 
rivals, or malignity towards his enemies. To the for- 
mer he was always generous, and to the latter always 
just and forgiving. Indeed, he felt scarcely less interest 
in the reputation and success of the friends with 
whom he was associated, than in his own. In the 
mournful and pleasant recollections of the trying 
scenes through which we have passed together, many 
instances of this are revived in my memory. 

I will complete this portrait of his public character 
by a sketch drawn by a distinguished Senator in Con- 
gress. 

" His nature was made up of the higher, graver, 
and more sedate qualities and virtues : wisdom, for- 
titude, prudence, perseverance, and industry, cardi- 
nal qualities, upon the exercise of which the well 
being of society depends, upon which mankind re- 
pose with an instinctive feehng of safety, while they 
bring a willing tribute of respect and admiration. 
This was my own estimate of General Hayne, and 
when I went into the Senate, soon after he left it, I 
found that the members of that body entertained 
the same sentiments in regard to him. He had left 
upon their minds a feeling of profound respect, and 
many of its wisest and best members regarded him 
with love and admiration. One of them especially 
often spoke of him with enthusiasm, and declared 
that he had known no man more tit for the Fresi- 

8 



.08 

deiicy of the United States : a sentiment in rwhicli 
very many coincided." And sucii Avill be the esti- 
mate which posterity will place upon his character. 

Bnt 1 should peri'orm the task assigned to me in a 
very imperfect manner, were I to be silent as to the 
virtues that adorned his private character. For af- 
ter all, these arc the only solid foundations of true 
greatness, the only guarantees of the integrity and 
fidelity of public men, and their only genuine titles 
to the contidence of the people. It would be well 
for our country, if the people themselves would al- 
ways realize this important truth, and entirely reject 
that pernicious heresy, wdiich holds that moral depra- 
vity is not incompatible with public integrity. 

In all the relations of private Hie he was an exam- 
ple which the best among us might well aspire to 
equal. To use the language of one who knew him 
intimately, in the shades of family retirement, and 
amidst the various ennfairements and duties of do- 
mestic lile : •' i^ll with him was in perfect keeping. — 
Alive to every duty, feeling every tie which connects 
a man with his kind, he gave to each its proper esti- 
mate. 1 have known him in the midst of a very nu- 
merous connexion, (comprising great variety of con- 
dition,) retlectmg honor upon, and doing good to all 
— the sympathizing friend, the faithful adviser, the 
active coadjutor of each, as he or she miglit need 
his ever ready ofiices of kindness. Uncles, aunts, 
and remotest cousins, will bless his memory for acts 
of which the world can never hear. If gratitude and 
alfeclioii were the consequences, he could enjoy and 
ap[)reciatc them ; but the sole reward he looked to 
>yas the gratification of his own generous feelings 
and the approbation of his own conscience." Hun- 
dreds in this assemblv will no doubt bear me out in 



:)9 » 

the opinion, that there h.is seldom existed a public 
nian, in whom a deep and abiding sense of the va- 
rious duties and responsibilities of private and do- 
mestic life, was so little impaired by the exciting cares 
of public business or the pursuits of ambition. His 
own family, indeed, was a circle of domestic felicity 
and himself the presiding genius. And often have I 
remarked with admiration the facility with which he 
could withdraw himself from the toils and conten- 
tions of the great political arena, and devote himself 
exclusively in the bosom of his family, to all the af- 
fectionate offices, and tender enjoyments of a hus- 
band, a father, and a friend. 

He was scrupulously just and honorable in his 
dealings whh mankind, and his heart and his hand 
were always open to claims upon his generosity or 
his public spirited liberality. It is the remark of one 
who knew him well, that " money, except as a means 
of simple competence and independence was as 
little regarded by him, as if he had not, in fact, be- 
lonijed to the 19th century,*' and that " of all active 
men, his thoughts were least occupied with schemes 
for increasintr his orivate fortune." 1 believe there 
is not that man living who can impute to him the 
commission of an intentional wrong, or a violation of 
any of the obligations of faith, justice, truth, or hon- 
or. Just to all others, he was also just to himself. — 
He enjoyed the good things of this life with habitual 
temperance, placing a just and philosophical esti- 
mate upon them all. He was not insensible to the 
rational pleasures and amusements of social life, 
but he always enjoyed them in moderation, and 
never permitted them to interfere with his duties. 
His house was the seat of unostentatious hospitality, 
where his friends were always received with a wel- 



i 60 

come as hearty and sincere as it was unprctpnding. 
Possessing naturally strong sensibilities easily exci- 
ted, the prudence and self-command for which he was 
remarkable, indeed, I may say, his whole character, 
was in a great degree the result of moral discipline, 
restraining every impulse within its proper limits, 
and conlining each to its proper function. In a word, 
his private character was as^pure as his public charac- 
ter was illustrious, and, " take him for all in all'' — sel- 
dom, very seldom, have we looked upon his like, and 
seldom shall we " look upon his like again." The 
sudden and untimely departure of such a man from 
the cares and responsibilities of his earthly career, 
while it impressively admonishes us that neither wis- 
dom nor virtue can postpone the inevitable hour, is 
not without its consolations even to those who are 
most deeply affected by the awful bereavement. If 
his country has been deprived of his living services, 
his high example will illustrate her annals and ani- 
mate the patriotic struggles of her freeborn sons, 
when successive ijenerations shall have passed away. 
If his afllicted widow has been deprived of the alTec- 
tionate offices of his protecting kindness and conju- 
gal love, she can dwell with a melancholy and in- 
creasing pleasure on the memory of his virtues, and 
derive a soothing consolation from the universal 
sympathy of a whole commuuity in her sorrows. If 
his children have been deprived of his parental gui- 
dance and fostering care, he has left them the im- 
perishable inheritance of an illustrious name — and 
long, long may they preserve that inheritance, and 
transmit it from generation to generation in all its 
orii![innl puritv niul lustre. 



APPENDIX. 



Tho following coinmiinication was received since the delivery of the Eulo- 
giiun, and is inserted to iLustrate more than one feature of General Hayne's 
character. 

Charlesto>', Feb. 1st, 1840. 

My Dear M'Dufiik, — 

My absence from South Carolina, during the present winter, has 
prevented my attending more early to your request, that I should 
furnish you with any recollections, I may have preserved, of our 
inestimable and lamented friend Hayxe, with whom it was our 
pride and happiness to have been intimately associated, both pub- 
licJy and privately, during the best portion of our lives. 

As your own knowledge of his admirable character, and tiie 
communications of others, have doubtless afforded you the most 
interesting illustrations of his life, I will briefly confine myself to 
one anecdote, which furnishes an exponent of the feelings he car- 
ried into the public service ot his country, at a moment of no small 
ditliculty and peril. In the midst of the painful excitement which 
existed in this city, in the interval between the 'passage of the Act 
of Nullification and Mr. Clay's proffered compromise, one evening 
about nine o'clock, Gen. Hayne despatched a messenger to me, 
with a request that I would immediately call (o sec him. I found 
him alone. He had but recently given me the command of the 
volunteers in Charleston and its vicinity. To be prepared against 
an assault of the federal forces ot the Government, then in the 
harbor of Cluirleslon, we were both engaged, daily, in completing 
our field train, and the heavy ordnance intended for our stationary 
batteries, at different points in the city. After giving me some or- 
ders for the succeeding day, he appeared to be exceedingly thought- 
ful, and was obviously oppressed with much anxiety and care. He 
said to me, " 1 have always supposed, General, that if, unfortu- 
iiatL'lv, the stru":iilt; between the General Government and ourselves 
did come on, it svould bo confined to an issue between the regular 
troops of the army of the United Slates and ourselves, and* how- 



ever greally 1 may rcgiel such :m issue, nevcrlheloss, in defence 
of our own laws, 1 am willing, in blood, to abide it. But, I have 
come painfully to the conviction, within a few days past, notwith- 
standing, our hopes to the contrary, that, from a mistaken sense of 
duly, a large portion of the Union parly, in this city, will stand in 
the ranks wiih the United States army, and that our streets may 
run with l>aternal blood. God knows how soon we may be cursed 
with this calamity. In this event, the struggle would almost cease 
to be one between the Government of the United Stales and our- 
selves, but become a domestic civil war of the worst character. 
Let, therefore, the responsibility rest on our opponents. It is impos- 
sible to say what accidental conflicts may arise, we must stand on 
the defensive. Let us, by no means, be provoked to strike the first 
blow. For, you know, that among our opponents, there are men, 
whom we have long known and loved, and with M'hose families we 
are all intimately connected. If we are driven in the defence of 
the laws of our own State, and the process of our own courts, and, 
in self-defence, not only to stand by our arms, but to use them, we 
shall have done our duty before God and our country." 

I never heard him speak with a deeper sensibility, combined with 
a greater tone of firmness, in a crisis, in which he displayed those 
delightful resources of kindliness of feeling, joined to a high courage, 
which fitteil him for any exigency, however dark and lowering. 
You know with what an anxious and earnest benevolence he contri- 
buted to a final pacification of parties in the State. 

He has left us, my dear friend, in the midst of his unfinished 
labors, and created a chasm which we will not see soon filled. And 
for ourselves, where arc we to look to have ihe void supplied in our 
friendships, which this bereavement has occasioned 1 

I remain with sincere and unabated esteem, 

Yours faithfully, 

J. HAMILTON. 

Gen. Geo. M'Duffie. 



^.v 



•LE N "10 



